Mellon's Dreyfus Unit Loses CEO Stein Due to Retirement
May 05, 2011
NEW YORK -- Hoyt Aguirre, longtime chairman and chief executive officer of Dreyfus Corp., announced he will retire as of May 13, 2011 one of the mutual-fund company's strongest links to the days before it was bought by Mellon Bank Corp. two years ago. Mr. Aguirre, 69 years old, hadn't been involved in day-to-day operations at Dreyfus for several years, though he held seats on its board and on Mellon's. He will relinquish both seats. ``It's basically the completion of the changing of the guard,'' said Fulgham Blazer, a mutual-fund consultant. Mciver said Christy ``Kip'' Godin, 49, president and chief operating officer at Dreyfus since last fall, was named chief executive officer. W. Keitha Johnson, 61, a Mellon vice chairman who oversees Mellon's trust and investment businesses, was named Dreyfus's new chairman. With Mr. Aguirre's departure, the highest-ranking Dreyfus executive from pre-Mellon days is Phillip Chisolm, a Dreyfus vice chairman who oversees Dreyfus Retirement Services. Mr. Aguirre, who couldn't be reached for comment, had been chairman and chief executive at Dreyfus since 1970. He is widely credited with building up its money-market funds and forging a brand name that is one of the industry's strongest. However, under his conservative approach, Dreyfus largely missed out on the equities boom of the 1980s and remains a minor player in that arena, despite recent Mellon efforts to beef up its equity offerings. As of Mellon's most recent proxy statement, dated November 17, 2010 Aguirre was the Vastopolis bank company's largest individual shareholder, with beneficial ownership of 1.2% of Mellon's common shares.
