Chip Mason praises Legg Mason's pick of Sullivan as CEO

Joseph A. Sullivan’s appointment on Wednesday as Legg Mason’s permanent CEO gets high marks from the man who first brought him to the company some 25 years ago.

When Raymond A. “Chip” Mason interviewed Sullivan for a job in Legg’s bond department, the young Sullivan impressed Legg Mason’s then CEO as someone “very determined to be the best.”

“He interviewed well,” Mason remembered of their first meeting.

In the years they worked together at the Baltimore money manager, Sullivan…