Stephen Anthony Zimmerman (born April 1949) was deputy chairman and co-head of

Mercury Asset Management Mercury Asset Management plc was a leading British investment management business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The Company was established in 1969 when S. G. Warburg & Co., the ...

throughout the 1990s alongside

Carol Galley Carol Galley is a businesswoman who, as a director of Mercury Asset Management, was regarded as the most powerful woman in the City of London in the 1990s. She was educated at Gosforth Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne and at the University o ...

Career

Zimmerman joined

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

investment bank S.G. Warburg & Co. in 1971, becoming a director of investment subsidiary, Mercury Asset Management in 1979 and deputy chairman from 1990. Along with Galley, who joined the company at the same time, Zimmerman has been credited with driving the growth of Mercury Asset Management during the 1980s and 1990s. The author Philip Augar wrote of Mercury in the 1980s and 1990s: “Under the leadership of eterStormonth Darling and then the triumvirate of Hugh Stevenson, Carol Galley and Stephen Zimmerman, Mercury caught the rising tide of instructional investment in the UK quite brilliantly.” Following the sale of Mercury to

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

in 1997, Zimmerman stayed on with Galley to lead the integration process as co-heads. Just as they had joined in the same year and worked closely over the following 30 years, they left at the same time, announcing their departure in March 2001. When reporting on Zimmerman and Galley’s decision to leave Merrill, the Wall Street Journal cited Zimmerman as saying that he ‘wouldn’t be surprised to end up sharing an office with

alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane ...

again’. Writing at the same time, Daily Telegraph columnist, Neil Collins, predicted they’d set up a boutique investment firm together. In the 2003, Zimmerman did set up a boutique, but with other ex-Merrill colleagues,

Michael Marks Michael Marks ( yi, מיכאל מארקס Polish: ''Michał Marks''; 1859? – 31 December 1907) was a businessman and entrepreneur, who with Thomas Spencer co-founded the British retail chain Marks & Spencer. Biography Marks was born into a ...

and Paul Roy (as opposed to Galley, who remained in retirement). The new Venture was called NewSmith in a nod, Smith New Court, another City institution bought by Merrill Lynch in the 1990s and previously run by Marks and Roy. NewSmith did well during the financial crisis, though asset under management declined during the following decade. In an echo of his departure from Merrill Lynch, Zimmerman retired at the same time as co-founder, Marks (NewSmith was acquired by Man Group less than a year later).

Other activities

Zimmerman has been active in supporting London-based Jewish charities. Of particular note, he was chairman of

Jewish Care Jewish Care is a British charity, working mainly in London and South East England, providing health and social care support services for the Jewish community. The charity runs over 70 centres and services which include care homes, community centr ...

from 2006 to 2011, and remains an honorary president.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Stephen Living people 1949 births British businesspeople