Richard Breeden, who chaired the SEC from 1989 to 1993 and recently was managing $1.3bn in assets, quit the Zale board and ended his bid to turn the company around, and lost a major client.   

Mr. Breeden, whose firm, Breeden Capital Management, remains Zale's largest shareholder.  His stake today is worth just a fraction of the $200mn++  it was worth 2 years ago.  Zale stock has fallen 72% in the past year,  Mr. Breeden, who founded Breeden Capital Management in 2006 to invest in wayward companies and help them recover, had success with one of his initial investments - restaurant chain Applebee's International.    He couldn't repeat his magic with Zale, once America's top jewelry chain.

Meanwhile, New York City’s $36 billion pension fund for civil-service employees fired Mr. Breeden's money management firm  - as of 6/30/10, the city had about $133mn invested with him - down from $136.5mn in October 2008.  That was a 2.3% net loss - the S&P 500 Index lost 2.5% during that same period.  The pension fund has paid the firm $6.2mn in fees, according to the comptroller’s records.  A Maryland pension fund has has about $134mn invested with Mr. Breeden - it's down nearly 13% from its 2007 initial investment.   [WSJournal, 9/25;  Bloomberg, 9/23]