Morgan Stanley has turned to the world of academic investing to transform the business outlook for its asset management business by appointing Greg Fleming as the chief of this unit. Mr Fleming had been teaching at the Yale Law School.

The appointment is part of a number of high-level announcements made in recent days by John Gorman, the incoming chief executive at Morgan Stanley.

Mr Fleming takes up his post in February, reporting to Mr Gorman, Morgan Stanley said in a statement.

Prior to his teaching role at Yale, Mr Fleming was president and chief operating officer at Merrill Lynch, leaving the latter firm at the start of this year.

From 2003 to 2007, he served as executive vice president and co-president of Merrill's Global Markets and Investment Banking Group. Previously, he was COO of global investment banking and co-head of the Global Financial Institutions Group.

Last week, Mr Gorman named Colm Kelleher and Paul Taubman as co-heads for  institutional securities. Mr Kelleher, currently Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, will oversee sales and trading and Paul Taubman, global head of investment banking, will focus on investment banking. Both men will jointly oversee global capital markets.