Re: We have people of various ethnic origins in high offices. Look at Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Elaine Ciao. And they aren't tokens, there is diversity in the judiciary and legislature and on down....
July 25, 2001
Merrill Lynch Names O'Neal President, Anointing Him as Komansky's Successor
By Charles Gasparino
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Merrill Lynch & Co. is paving the way for a new leader, but the road has been a bit bumpy.
Tuesday, the nation's largest securities firm named E. Stanley O'Neal as president, putting him in line to succeed David Komansky as chief executive officer when Mr. Komansky is scheduled to retire in three years.
The move came after Merrill's board, disappointed with the Wall Street firm's recent poor financial performance, pressured Mr. Komansky, 62 years old, to move up his timing and name a new president immediately, people familiar with the matter say. Merrill for some time had said it would name a new president near year-end.
Mr. Komansky, in an interview, says he wasn't coerced to make the move. But a person close to Merrill says members of the firm's board had prodded Mr. Komansky to name Mr. O'Neal, the company's 49-year-old brokerage chief and former chief financial officer, who has made a mark for his cost-cutting efforts at Merrill in the past two years -- far earlier than some rivals amid the current market slump.
The move essentially anoints Mr. O'Neal as Merrill's next CEO; historically, the firm's leaders are groomed as presidents before assuming the top spot. Such a promotion for Mr. O'Neal would cap a 15-year Merrill career that has included stints as an investment banker and chief financial officer. And in a significant milestone for Wall Street, it would make Mr. O'Neal the first black executive to become CEO of a major Wall Street brokerage house.
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