Bruce Calvert is making room at the top. The chief at Alliance Capital Management today said that he has relinquished his CEO title to the former head of Sanford Bernstein Lewis A. Sanders. Calvert will keep his title of chairman. Alliance added that John D. Carifa will continue as president and chief operating officer.

Sanders has been a director, vice chairman, and chief investment officer of Alliance Capital Management since October 2, 2000. Before that time he was chairman and CEO of Bernstein.

"I've viewed Lew as a potential successor since we acquired Sanford C. Bernstein in 2000," said Calvert in a statement explaining the moves. "He built a great firm while he was Bernstein's CEO and has developed a solid understanding of Alliance's broader business over the last two and a half years. I believe he'll provide excellent leadership as we continue to build on Alliance's already strong position in our industry."

Alliance purchased Sanford Bernstein in the summer of 2000, after the Nasdaq bubble burst but before it became plainly obvious that the bear market would be protracted. At the time, the purchase was widely seen as a way for Alliance to broaden its product line up into value-focused offerings and to open the door on the high net worth market.

Today's move is intended to separate offices of Chairman and CEO, Calvert elaborated. Separating those offices is becoming a trend as firms react to some of the corporate governance scandals of 2002. The most recent asset manager to split the offices was Charles Schwab when David Pottruck took the CEO job.  

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