Who Should Replace Stan O’Neal?

With Merrill Lynch Chairman/CEO Stan O’Neal seemingly on his way out within a matter of days, the question on the minds of many people is who should replace him? Mark Gongloff recently posed this question on the MarketBeat blog of The Wall Street Journal (see the article here). Gongloff proposed five candidates: Laurence Fink, John Thain, Gregory Fleming, Bob McCann, and someone else besides the previous four. We here at IntellectSpace were interested in seeing what common corporate ties these candidates might have to Merrill Lynch. To determine this we created four Knowledge Maps, one for each named candidate (Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).

In our first Knowledge Map of Laurence Fink, we find that all the corporate ties are through divisions of BlackRock. As CEO of BlackRock, Fink purchased Merrill’s asset-management division last year; with the result that Merrill has a 49% stake in BlackRock.

In the Knowledge Map of John Thain (former Director/President/Co-COO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc), ties to Merrill Lynch run through Goldman Sachs (via Andrew Melnick, former Senior VP at Merrill), the Depository Trust Co, the Trilateral Commission, and the National Urban League.

Greg Fleming

is currently a Co-President at Merrill Lynch. As a result he has a huge advantage over other candidates in that he is already intimately familiar with the inner-workings at Merrill. He is also currently a Director at a division of BlackRock. However, if the Directors at Merrill are seeking a clean break from the Stan O’Neal era then Fleming’s t

ies to Merrill could prove a liability.

Our final Knowledge Map involves Bob McCann. McCann, like Fleming, is also currently a Merrill employee, serving as an Executive VP of the Wealth Management Group. Like Fleming, McCann is no doubt familiar with the inner workings at Merrill, but also like Fleming this could hurt him should the Board decide that a fresh start is needed.

Based on this information all four candidates have substantial credentials to present to Merrill Lynch. It is difficult to tell whom the Board will go with at this juncture, although rumors seem to lean towards Laurence Fink. However it is entirely possible that the Board will go with the fifth candidate, “someone else”.

Click here for interactive versions of these IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps (Internet Explorer browsers only):

Merrill Lynch - Laurence Fink: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=e81de0e4-98f2-411a-a681-a0e4036a992b

Merrill Lynch - John Thain: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=045f4ef4-831b-40f9-8320-a5ef31a40369

Merrill Lynch - Greg Fleming: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=dc80d175-1d12-485e-a0c3-1cf0a0a9ebeb

Merrill Lynch - Bob McCann: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=72663eaa-5b94-452e-b43f-79e188521ff8