Stan O'Neal, chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER), has decided to retire from the company effective immediately, the company announced today. Mr. O'Neal has been chief executive officer of the company since December 2002 and joined the company 21 years ago. The company said the board of directors has elected Alberto Cribiore as interim non-executive chairman.In what might be viewed as a bit of a surprise, Cribiore said that Ahmass Fakahany and Gregory Fleming would continue as co-presidents and chief operating officers. Fleming is considered one of the possible successors to O'Neal but Fakahany has been directly linked with O'Neal and the risk problems Merrill has been facing. It has been surmised by some that Fakahany could be next.
Merrill Lynch said Mr. Cribiore, who has been a member of the Merrill Lynch board since 2003, also will chair a search committee that will identify and evaluate chief executive candidates from within and outside of the company. Mr. Cribiore is managing partner and founder of Brera Capital, a global private equity firm, and former president of private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
Mr. Cribiore said that Ahmass Fakahany and Gregory Fleming will continue as Merrill Lynch co-presidents and chief operating officers. He further noted that Mr. Fakahany will lead the company's global support, finance and human resources functions and that Mr. Fleming will lead the integrated businesses of Merrill Lynch & Co., including risk management.We just have to wait to see how this really plays out over the next few weeks and months.
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1 comment:
Merrill probably needs to just start from scratch. If this is the case, Larry Fink may not be the right person for the job. He has purchased units of Merrill before and Merrill controls 49% of BlackRock's stock. As a result, Fink might be a little too closely tied to Merrill to institute serious reform. In this case, John Thain would be a better candidate, as seen in this Knowledge Map http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/who-should-repl.html
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