NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Stock Exchange, scarred by outrage over an eye-popping pay package for its chairman, named a former Citigroup executive as its interim leader yesterday at a salary of $1.
John S. Reed, 64, will lead the exchange as it seeks a permanent replacement for Dick Grasso, who was forced out by news that his compensation deal totaled $187.5 million — a figure seen as excessive even by Wall Street standards.
“Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had some failures at the governance level,” Mr. Reed told reporters in a conference call from an island off France, where he was vacationing when the NYSE board offered him the job as interim chairman and chief executive.
Mr. Reed, who was co-chairman and co-CEO of Citigroup when he retired in April 2000, declined to discuss Mr. Grasso, but acknowledged the need for reform.
“I have seen crises that are quite comparable to the one the exchange has gone through,” he said. “It didn’t help anybody. It didn’t help the people that were involved. It didn’t help the exchange.”
Mr. Reed, who insisted he was not a candidate for the permanent position, said he hoped the exchange would have a new leader by the end of the year. The NYSE will pay him $1 no matter how long he serves.
Although Mr. Reed spent more than 35 years at Citi, he had set foot inside the NYSE only once and never sat on an NYSE committee — a background that observers called key because of the pressure on the exchange to clean house.
Mr. Reed said he would resign his seat on the board of Altria Group Inc., parent of tobacco company Philip Morris, because of his new responsibilities.
Mr. Reed will take over at the stock exchange on Sept. 30.
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