Dresdner Kleinwort executives step down - sources

By Quentin Webb

LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - All but one of the executive committee that ran Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment banking arm of Dresdner Bank, has stepped down after Commerzbank's takeover of Dresdner closed on Monday, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The move was expected, but highlights how few of the most senior bankers from Dresdner Kleinwort, a venerable name in merchant banking, will play a role in the future investment banking operations of DK and Commerzbank .

Commerzbank, now 25 percent owned by the German state, is scaling back Dresdner Kleinwort to focus on German companies and retail clients.

It will combine DK with its corporates and markets investment banking business after the deal formally completes under German law in March. Until then, top-level executives will sit on two parallel committees to run the businesses.

Berent Wallendahl, former head of client coverage in DK's global banking unit, is the only committee member to take up an equivalent top executive-level position after the takeover closed, the sources said, as head of client relationship management.

Ralf Werres of Dresdner Kleinwort, who was not on the committee, has been promoted and will be the only other Dresdner banker to take a top-level executive role, in charge of institutional sales, the sources said.

In September Commerzbank said it had picked the top 66 executive-level bankers for the combined bank, across all businesses, including 15 from Dresdner Bank, but did not name them.

And in December a source familiar with the matter said Commerzbank would shrink its UK M&A business to a 'small presence' and cut 1,200 of the combined 3,300 staff in London.

The other committee members are leaving. According to DK's website they were:

Chief Executive Stefan Jentzsch;

Jens-Peter Neumann, head of capital markets and head of equity and credit derivatives

Baudouin Croonenberghs, chief operating officer

Alberto Piedra, head of global banking

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist John McIntyre, head of strategic advisory

Bertrand Pinel, head of global finance

William Fish, head of global loans and transaction services

Martin Newson, head of hedge fund solutions and head of global equities

Thomas Roeder, head of principal investments

Mike Adams, head of emerging markets

Eddie Listorti, head of fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC)

Stefan Guetter, head of global distribution

Colin Phillips, head of research

Commerzbank and Dresdner Kleinwort declined to comment.

(Reporting by Quentin Webb;; Editing by Erica Billingham) Keywords: DRESDNER/COMMITTEE (Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]; [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.