The CEOs of two of the largest financial institutions in the country have resigned in recent weeks: Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch and Charles Prince of Citigroup. These rock-star CEOs, both undone by the festering fallout of the subprime mess, have been replaced by operating executives with far lower profiles. On Monday, when Prince stepped down, he was replaced as chairman by 1990s icon Robert Rubin and as chief executive officer by Win Bischoff, a European banking executive whom resurgent CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo would probably not recognize. When O'Neal resigned from Merrill last week, the company didn't name a replacement CEO but instead named board member Alberto Cribiore, a private-equity executive who could walk anonymously onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, to be the interim non executive chairman.
In time, both firms will likely bring in high-profile CEOs, probably from outside the company, to right the ship. But in the meantime, both banks have swapped household names for no-names. Rubin aside, the new bosses are unknown quantities even to many within the investment banks. It would be like the Yankees firing Joe Torre and declaring that the best person to run the show on an interim basis is the manager of the Class A Staten Island Yankees.
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