John Thain, ex- Merrill Chief To Lead CIT (CIT, BAC)
February 08, 2010 9:20 AM
CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), the commercial lender, appointed John Thain as its chief after a four month replacement search. John Thain, as some may remember, was the ousted chief of Merrill Lynch & Co.
Thain is 54 and has been appointed as the chairman and CEO of CIT with immediate effect, according to a statement by the New York based CIT. Thain replaces Jeffrey Peek, who was also an ex- Merrill Lynch executive. Incidentally, Thain returns to the top job at a public company more than a year after he was ousted from his position at Merrill, by Kenneth D. Lewis, who was the then CEO of Bank of America Corp. (NYE: BAC).
This was after Bank of America agreed to purchase Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. CIT is still recovering from Peek’s misadventure into the subprime lending mess, with its operations being barred from transacting commercial paper business.
