Stanley O'Neal
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Ernest Stanley "Stan" O'Neal is an American businessman and the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., having served in numerous senior management positions at the company prior to this appointment. O'Neal was a member of the board of directors of General Motors from 2001 through 2006 and currently serves on the board of Alcoa Inc.
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[edit] Early life
O'Neal was born in 1951 in the tiny rural farming community of Wedowee, Alabama, the son of a farmer. O'Neal lived with his father, mother, sister, and two brothers. O'Neal's father showed great initiative and by the time he was ready to go to school his father had established himself at General Motors and had moved into the middle class.
[edit] College years
O'Neal's father moved his family from Wedowee to Atlanta, where he worked on a General Motors assembly line. Stan O'Neal also worked on GM's assembly line as a teenager, but GM spotted his strong intellect and sent him on a scholarship to the General Motors Institute (later came to be known as Kettering University), where he gained a degree in industrial administration in 1974. His exceptional performance gained him entry into the Harvard Business School, where he attained his MBA in 1978. [1] He earned his degree after receiving a merit scholarship from General Motors.
[edit] Personal life
He has been married twice. His current wife is Nancy Garvey. They have twins, a boy and a girl. Nancy Garvey holds a B.A. degree in economics from Barnard College and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. She was formerly the Controller of Allied-Signal. http://www.answers.com/topic/stanley-o-neal
[edit] Professional life
O'Neal initially began work as an analyst for General Motors; within three years he was a director in the treasury division. He joined Merrill Lynch in 1986. By the early 1990s, he was running Merrill's leveraged finance division. After spells as global head of capital markets and co-head of the corporate and institutional client group, he spent two years as CFO from 1998 to 2000. He then briefly became president of Merrill's U.S. private client group, before becoming president of the firm in 2001. By 2003, he was CEO and chairman.[1] O'Neal earned USD$48 million in 2006.
During August and September of 2007, as the sub prime crisis swept through the Global financial market, Merrill Lynch announced losses of $8 billion. In October of the same year, he announced his retirement and walked away with a compensation package valued at $161.5 million.[2]
On January 17th, Merrill Lynch announced 4th quarter writedowns and provisions of $14.1 billion, bringing total writedowns for 2007 to the sum of $22.5 billion. The company recorded a $12.8 billion pretax loss for all of 2007, versus a pretax profit of $9.8 billion for 2006.
On January 18th, Mr. O'Neal was named to the board of directors of Alcoa. As described in the company press release, Alcoa Chairman and CEO Alain Belda stated: "Stan is a straightforward leader who focused on improving the operations of the business during his tenure at Merrill as part of his broader strategic vision for the firm."
In February of 2008, O'Neal was called to testify before Congress regarding his enormous compensation despite the recent economic downturn beginning in late 2007 and continuing to the present.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- John Cassidy, "Subprime Suspect," The New Yorker, March 31, 2008 (detailed online abstract)
- Merrill Lynch biography (archive)
- Harvard Business School Bulletin profile
