Matt Zames
is stepping down as president of Cerberus Capital Management LP after only three years in the role, the private-equity firm said Monday.
The departure came as a surprise to Cerberus executives, who wanted Mr. Zames to stay, according to people familiar with the matter. He said he felt he had accomplished a lot and was ready to try something new, the people said.
Mr. Zames, who previously served as chief operating officer of
& Co., was hired in 2018 as part of a series of moves at the New York investment firm that included the naming of firm veteran Frank Bruno as co-chief executive alongside co-founder Stephen Feinberg.
As president, Mr. Zames had broad responsibilities at Cerberus, which manages over $50 billion in assets across credit, private equity and real estate and is known for investments in struggling companies like Avon Products Inc. He oversaw the firm’s investments in the financial-services sector, including big stakes in Germany’s
and
Commerzbank AG
.
With Deutsche Bank, Cerberus took on the unusual role of becoming a paid adviser to the bank. That put Mr. Zames in the position of both trying to fix Deutsche Bank, which had been suffering from years of losses, restructuring, legal fines and management turnover, and attempting to salvage Cerberus’s investment.
Cerberus’s stake in Deutsche Bank, which it first disclosed in 2017, was worth less than half of what it paid by the time its advisory relationship with the bank ended in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deutsche Bank shares have climbed significantly since mid-2019 when it put in place a turnaround strategy that Mr. Zames helped architect.
Mr. Zames, 50 years old, had developed a reputation as a fix-it man for banks. He had helped steer JPMorgan through the $6 billion “London Whale” trading fiasco and had played a key role in its emergency takeover of Bear Stearns Cos. in 2008.
Mr. Zames was once thought of as a possible successor to JPMorgan Chief Executive
James Dimon.
He left the bank in 2017 after it became clear he was unlikely to get the job anytime soon, or perhaps at all.
At Cerberus, Mr. Zames also oversaw investments in the technology industry and helped Cerberus expand its own technology, data and artificial-intelligence capabilities. He served as chairman of Cerberus Technology Solutions, a subsidiary the firm launched in 2018 aimed at transforming businesses through technology and analytics. The unit now employs more than 70 technology specialists.
Write to Miriam Gottfried at Miriam.Gottfried@wsj.com
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Appeared in the March 23, 2021, print edition as ‘Cerberus President Zames To Leave.’
