Big Board directors are beginning to discuss the names of possible replacements for their embattled chairman, Dick Grasso.
One name that has risen to the top of the list of wished-for successors is William McDonough, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Grasso, who is under fire for accepting almost $190 million in compensation – $48 million of which he opted to forfeit under pressure from his board – has indicated he will stay on as chairman and CEO until his contract expires in 2007.
Nonetheless, a wide range of critics has called for his resignation.
McDonough had been nominated as an NYSE director earlier this year, after Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill’s appointment was withdrawn in the face of harsh criticism over the fact that his bank had been under regulatory fire and was set to pay the largest fine of all the major firms for conflicted research.
But when he accepted the post as head of the newly formed Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in April, he too had to withdraw his nomination.
Sources say they have not reached out to the former New York Fed president and he has made clear he has no intention of leaving. “I am delighted with the job I have right now,” said McDonough.
An NYSE spokesman declined to comment on “useless speculation on Dick Grasso.”
An option seriously contemplated by a special governance committee is separating the role of chairman and CEO – with the possibility that Grasso would continue to run the business, but with a chairman acting as a check on his power.
Other names bandied about by regulators, floor brokers and securities firms include: Don Marron, former head of PaineWebber; former Fed chief Paul Volcker; Robert Rubin, vice chairman at Citigroup and a former Treasury Secretary; and Daniel Tully, former head of Merrill Lynch.