Lehman has forced out its COO and CFO in the continuing fallout from the firm's massive losses. The CEO, however, still remains in place.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I wonder if it has occurred to the CEO (and other CEOs) just what this says? I mean, it appears that the CFO and COO were the people who could have made a difference -- else why fire them after things go wrong? And, since he's still in place, apparently the CEO could not have.
It's enough to suggest a serious re-think of the relative salaries, isn't it?
"It's enough to suggest a serious re-think of the relative salaries, isn't it?"
For what it's worth, CEOs are often not the highest paid employees in investment banks. That title often goes to more obscure traders or bankers.
If more and more of these i-bankers keep getting re-engineered the Yankees and Mets might have trouble selling all the luxury boxes in their new stadiums.
The CFO had only been in that position since December. Can you say fall guy (or this case girl).
Erin Callan was not a CFO; she was a PR flack. A junior version of Carly Fiorina. She came from wealth management, and had no relevant experience for the job. She was drafted as a diversion, because journalists and analysts aren't going to question a pretty blonde as ruthlessly as they would some schlubby dude. "Oh look, a shiny penny, now what was I going to ask you?" She's of a type that dominates wealth management right now: pretty, smart (mostly blonde) women, Ivy League educated, who can fish the big dollars out of the wallets of aging Boomer men who still fancy themselves as players. See Liz Ann Sonders at Schwab and Mary Erdos at JP Morgan. A nice dinner, some old scotch, a little harmless flirting: BOOM, $200 million account. She was always going to get canned; she'll be back at wealth management in three months.
Wow stc1 that is harsh. But you answered some of my questions as I read the NYTimes before as to why someone from wealth management would be made CFO of Lehman. I assume that big part of CFO job is risk management and hger background didn't look like that.