John Thain

John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) is an American financial executive and investment banker.

He was president and co-COO of Goldman Sachs, and then CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.

Thain then became the last chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co. before its merger with Bank of America.

He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1977 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979.

While attending MIT, Thain joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

Thain worked at Goldman Sachs, as head of its mortgage securities division from 1985 to 1990, and president and co-chief operating officer from 1999 to 2004.

In December 2003, interim chairman John Reed at the New York Stock Exchange told The Wall Street Journal that Thain would be paid "a plain vanilla number", about $4 million a year including bonuses, with no "strange retirement" program like the one former NYSE CEO Dick Grasso was given.

Before he accepted the CEO position at Merrill Lynch, Thain reportedly was one of the runners-up to head Citigroup.

After leaving Goldman Sachs, Thain was CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from January 2004 to December 2007.

Merrill Lynch and Citigroup sought new leaders following the sudden departure of their former CEOs after the disappointing performance in the third quarter of 2007 due to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Nelson Chai, the CFO of the New York Stock Exchange under Thain, followed his mentor to Merrill Lynch and assumed the same role as CFO.

Thain arranged the sale of Merrill to Bank of America at $29 per share, a 70 percent premium over the market price.

The deal valued the brokerage at $50 billion.

Thain was expected to be president of global banking, securities and wealth management, a new division at Bank of America, to oversee its corporate and investment bank and most of wealth management business.

Upon joining Merrill Lynch, Thain received a $15 million signing bonus.

The firm announced that Thain would receive at least $50 million a year and could be paid as much as $120 million a year, based on the company's stock price.

The Associated Press identified Thain, who received $83.1 million, as one of the best paid executives of S&P 500 companies in 2007.

In that year, Thain earned a total compensation of $83,785,021, which included a base salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of $15 million, stock grant of $33,013,151, and options grant of $35,017,421.

Thain suggested to the directors that he receive a bonus in 2008 of as much as $10 million, because he "saved Merrill" by selling it off to Bank of America.

After the compensation committee at Merrill refused the request, Thain reportedly dropped it on December 8, 2008.

Gasparino then said that Thain spent $1.22 million to refurbish his office, shortly after he had been named as CEO of Merrill in January 2008.

Merrill was still an independent firm at the time, and some analysts predicted that, with Thain as new CEO, the company would be back on track for a strong performance in the midst of disappointing results on Wall Street.

He was designated to become president of global banking, securities, and wealth management at the newly combined company, but resigned on January 22, 2009.

Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, reportedly forced Thain to step down after several controversies, such as the losses at Merrill Lynch which proved to be far larger than previously estimated, and the award of huge executive bonuses.

Thain then was chairman and CEO of the CIT Group.

It was revealed on January 22, 2009, that Thain spent $1.22 million of corporate funds in early 2008 to renovate two conference rooms, a reception area, and his office, spending $131,000 for area rugs, $68,000 for an antique credenza, $87,000 for guest chairs, $35,115 for a gold-plated commode on legs, and $1,100 for a wastebasket.

Thain subsequently apologized for his lapse in judgment, and reimbursed the company in full for the costs.

Thain accelerated approximately $4 billion in bonus payments to employees at Merrill just prior to the close of the deal with Bank of America.

Bank of America was aware of the payment, as allowing the payment to go through was reportedly one of the conditions under the merger agreement.

Speculation mounted that some of TARP fund was used for the bonus payment, but TARP recipients were not required to disclose how the funds were segregated, or what they were used for.

Sheila Bair, chair of the FDIC reported that during a meeting with the Treasury secretary at the depth of the financial panic, Thain asked the secretary if the TARP program would impact his compensation.

On January 16, 2009, Bank of America announced that Merrill suffered an unexpected loss of $15 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said that, without $138 billion in government assistance, including the infusion of $20 billion from the federal government, he would have pulled out of the Merrill deal, which had been approved by Bank of America shareholders in early December.

People close to Lewis say his relationship with Thain was strained by Merrill's massive fourth quarter loss.

Lewis himself faced criticism for rushing to buy Merrill for $28 billion after less than two days of due diligence.

On January 22, 2009, on CNBC's The Call, Charlie Gasparino said that Thain was going to meet Lewis later in the day.

Gasparino added that Thain's future at Bank of America was in doubt, although it was not certain whether he would be leaving.

He has been a board member of Uber since 2017.

Thain was born in Antioch, Illinois.

His father, Alan, was a doctor who has since handed his practice on to Thain's two brothers, Dennis and Robert, both general practitioners.