When John Mack returned to Morgan Stanley in 2005, the Wall Street giant's rank and file cheered him as he strode across the trading floor. Less than three years later, the firm's investors are likely to be applauding if he's walking out the door.
 
If pressure from angry shareholders pushes Mack from his perch at Morgan Stanley, it'll be the third high-profile job he's been kicked out of in the past decade. That's impressive work for a guy who carries a reputation of being a Wall Street fixer—"Mack the Knife"—who turns around troubled financial titans.
 
With the glamour that always surrounds him and the strange praise that follows, you'd think the guy was Ace Greenberg or even Bob Rubin, who built great companies and stuck around. Instead, he keeps getting pushed out of seemingly prime situations by the most unimpressive of rivals.
 
During his first go-round with Morgan, he rose through the ranks as a dutiful pro and eventually became the president of the merged Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Going into the deal with an upper hand over the decidedly mediocre and middlebrow partner, Mack wasn't savvy enough to outmaneuver Dean Witter C.E.O. Phil Purcell, a former management consultant of all things (and from Chicago, to boot!) and found himself unemployed.  
 
Next, Mack took his knife to Credit Suisse First Boston in 2001. Admittedly, the firm was on the brink of being criminally indicted and he was smart enough to bring in top-shelf lawyers like Gary Lynch and Steve Volk to get the firm out of regulators' crosshairs.

Once out of the woods (and lighter a $100 million government settlement), First Boston insiders will tell you, Mack alienated bankers and morale fell along with the firm's standing in the league tables.
 
He turned a profit at the place, but it came at a high cost, and once he began pushing hard for a merger, his co-C.E.O. Oswald J. Grübel (a European, no less!) pushed back. Another political pratfall: Mack was summarily executed by the firm's Swiss board. "Bankers were doing the happy dance when he left," one First Boston pro said.
 
Morgan Stanley shareholders have been doing anything but dancing in the past few months.
 
The firm, trying to emulate Goldman Sachs, kept ramping up its risk profile, but the party ended early, leaving Morgan exposed to a walloping by the credit crunch.

Mack, who is famed for breeding loyalty in the ranks, tossed his No. 2, Zoe Cruz, overboard after the firm wrote down $6 billion (that number has since ballooned to $11 billion).
 
And now, CtW Investment Group wants Mack—who made more than $40 million in 2006 but took no bonus and just $1.5 million in 2007—removed from the chairman's job, while letting him remain C.E.O. It also wants two board members booted from the audit committee.
 
But Mack's harshest critics may be looking for more—primarily his scalp.
 
After all, Morgan shares are now about where they were when Mack returned in 2005—after having about one-third sheared from their value over the past four months. Mack the Knife, indeed.

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