-->Selbstsbedienungskapitalismus - die Amis scheinen offenbar nicht mehr
fähig auszumisten.

Goldman President Named New Head of Stock Exchange
By PATRICK McGEEHANand LANDON THOMAS Jr.

Published: December 18, 2003






Mr. Thain, who joins the Big Board at a time of sweeping change, said at a news conference this morning that he was proud be a part of the organization and"looked forward to our partnership."

"I am excited by the future," he added.

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously approved a new governing structure for the exchange on Wednesday, clearing the way for the exchange to select new leadership.

Mr. Thain, who has been the No. 2 executive at Goldman, one of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street, succeeds John S. Reed, who has served as interim chairman and chief executive since Richard A. Grasso resigned in September amid a scandal over the size of his pay package.

The exchange has decided to split the chairman's and chief executive's roles as part of the Big Board's overhaul of its practices, and Mr. Reed will become non-executive chairman, at least for a while..

The decision by the exchange to split the jobs was announced on Wednesday by William H. Donaldson, the S.E.C. chairman, who had urged the division to keep too much power from being concentrated in the hands of one person. His comments came moments before the commission acted on the overhaul proposal, which had been put forward by Mr. Reed.

Mr. Reed declined through a spokesman to discuss the S.E.C.'s decision or the search for new leadership of the exchange. He has scheduled a news conference for this morning to discuss changes at the exchange.

Rumors of the impending appointment of Mr. Thain began spreading around Wall Street yesterday, but officials of Goldman Sachs and the exchange declined to comment on them.

The selection of Mr. Thain — widely known as a technocrat — is seen as an unexpected but shrewd move for Mr. Reed. At Goldman, Mr. Thain was involved in many of the firm's investments in electronic-trading platforms, a number of which are now competing with the Big Board.

Mr. Thain would be ideally placed to blunt the frequent criticisms made of the exchange that its trading system, relying as it does on a network of specialist traders, has become outmoded in the face of rapid technological changes.

In November, Mr. Thain made some pointed public comments about the Big Board, saying in a speech that some trades should be handled electronically and not by Big Board specialists. He added that the views were his alone and not those of Goldman Sachs.

He joins the exchange as it revamps its practices. The new charter of the exchange creates a smaller board with directors who have no other business ties to the exchange or to companies listed on the Big Board. The structure also adds greater separation between the trading and regulatory functions of the exchange, though some critics have called for a complete division of the two.

Mr. Donaldson, who had opposed a suggestion that the commission rewrite the exchange's charter to require that the jobs of chairman and chief executive be divided, said on Wednesday that he had asked Mr. Reed to fill the jobs with separate people because of the recent experience under Mr. Grasso, the former chairman and chief executive. He stepped down this year because of controversy about his $139.5 million compensation package.

"The N.Y.S.E. proposal includes the flexibility to permit the positions of chairman and C.E.O. to be held by the same person, or by two different people," Mr. Donaldson said before the commission approved the overhaul of the exchange.

"Given the unfortunate experience of the recent past, however, I believe it is highly preferable — and I have expressed this opinion to the exchange — that the positions of chairman and C.E.O. be held by two different people, at least in the near term."

Harvey J. Goldschmid, the commissioner who had lobbied hard to separate the two jobs, said he was deeply satisfied by Mr. Donaldson's decision.

"This will distribute power in an institution that has suffered greatly from having power concentrated too much in one person's hands," he said.