June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Samuel Chapin, a 25-year Merrill Lynch & Co. banker whose clients included Dennis Kozlowski, retired from Bank of America Corp. last month, people familiar with the matter said.

Chapin, 52, was most recently a vice chairman in executive client coverage at Merrill, where he helped oversee the investment bank’s relationships with corporate clients. He became co-head of the investment bank in 2001. He will look at job opportunities in the future, one of the people said.

More than a dozen senior Merrill Lynch executives have left since the January acquisition by Bank of America, including Chief Executive Officer John Thain and President Greg Fleming. Investment bankers such as Europe banking chief Mark Aedy and Americas mergers chief Alan Hartman have also departed.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to be part of such a great company,” Chapin said in an April 16 internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. “I am confident in the leadership and future of the combined company and wish much success to all of my colleagues.”

Chapin joined Merrill in 1984 in its mergers and acquisitions department. He subsequently joined the corporate banking group, where he became a managing director in 1993. Chapin was promoted to co-head of the global industries group in 1997, where he represented companies such as Deere & Co., Alcoa Inc. and Best Foods Inc. He was also former Tyco CEO Kozlowski’s banker, and testified at his trial in 2004.

Hexal, Novartis

Chapin’s more recent deals include advising German drugmaker Hexal AG on its $4.4 billion sale to Novartis AG in 2005, according to Corporate Control Alert, an industry newsletter.

Danielle Robinson, a spokeswoman for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, declined to comment on the departure.

While Bank of America has lost executives it has also hired more than 100 investment bankers, research analysts, and global markets professionals, Robinson said. Steve Niemczyk was hired from UBS AG to run the investment-banking unit that advises asset-management companies, and Bryan Weadock left JPMorgan Chase & Co. to be chief of fixed-income sales for the Americas starting next month.

David Bianco of UBS was named head of U.S. equity strategy at Bank of America earlier this month and Ethan Harris, previously co-head of economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. was hired as head of North America Economics.

To contact the reporters on this story: Zachary R. Mider in New York at zmider1@bloomberg.netskishan@bloomberg.net; Josh Fineman in New York at jfineman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 8, 2009 17:07 EDT