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Who

Stan O'Neal is the former chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch. He was ousted from the top job in November 2007 and replaced by John Thain.

Backstory

O'Neal has traveled a long way up—and down—over the course of his 30-year career. Born into a poor family in rural Wedowee, Alabama, a descendant of a former slave, O'Neal labored on his grandfather's farm as a kid, picking corn and cotton, before moving to an Atlanta housing project when his father landed a job at a nearby General Motors plant. (His mother helped the family make ends meet by working as a maid.) After toiling on the GM assembly line himself, O'Neal went to college at Detroit's General Motors Institute (now the Kettering University) and later headed off to Harvard Business School, rejoining GM after graduating in 1978. Eight years later, he bid goodbye to the auto industry and bolted for the more lucrative confines of Merrill Lynch's high-yield division.

O'Neal rose up the ranks at Merrill quickly. By the early '90s, he was in charge of the firm's junk bond department; by 1997, he was co-head of global markets and investment banking. A year later, he was appointed CFO and earned praise for guiding the company through a series of messes, including the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management and the Russian financial crisis. Merrill CEO David Komansky tapped O'Neal as the firm's president in 2001, a move that designated him as his heir apparent. Sure enough, when Komansky stepped down a year later, O'Neal took over as CEO, tacking on the title of chairman a year later. He remained atop the financial conglomerate until the fall of 2007, when he was ousted amid billions in losses, deep resentment from the board, and the dissatisfaction of thousands of Merrill employees. He was replaced in December 2007 by John Thain.

Of note

When O'Neal took over at Merrill, he quickly set into motion a plan to slash expenses. His cost-cutting ways didn't make him a very popular figure with company employees (particularly since the cuts took place just weeks after Sept. 11th), but both the board and Merrill investors seemed pleased with his pragmatic approach. (The financial press was equally beguiled: "Merrill Lynch couldn't be luckier to have him," declared Fortune.) O'Neal's cuts claimed over 24,000 jobs and led to the closure of nearly 300 field offices, but the belt-tightening bolstered Merrill's bottom line—the firm notched record earnings in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and experienced particularly strong growth in its investment banking and overseas markets divisions. Merrill's rosier fortunes permitted O'Neal to aggressively expand, and he snapped up stakes in more than 30 firms both large and small, most significantly the 2006 acquisition of Larry Fink's BlackRock for $9.8 billion.

Everything changed for O'Neal in 2007 when the credit and housing markets started to crumble and Merrill's risky investments in subprime mortgages led to unexpectedly large write-downs. The situation got worse when it was revealed that a panicky O'Neal had made overtures to Wachovia about a potential merger without bothering to consult the board first. The record losses and O'Neal's political misstep sealed his fate, but the bitterness over Merrill's predicament was compounded by a monumental amount of anger on the part of Merrill employees, who not only blamed O'Neal for his financial failures, but also for disassembling the genial corporate culture that had once predominated at the firm. In late October 2007, O'Neal announced he was stepping down as CEO. Despite the conventional wisdom that Larry Fink might take over, O'Neal was replaced by former NYSE chief John Thain.

Keeping score

O'Neal took home $91.4 million in compensation in 2006, including $700,000 in salary, an $18.5 million bonus, and $72.2 million in stock options. (He also collected $212,505 from Merrill for his full-time car and driver.) Parting from Merrill didn't involve much sorrow: O'Neil's exit package of cash, stock and benefits amounted to $161.5 million.

Personal

O'Neal is married to his second wife, economist Nancy Garvey, whom he met while working at General Motors. The couple has twins, a boy and a girl. The O'Neals live at 941 Park, the same apartment building that's home to Hearst president Cathie Black and newsman Tom Brokaw.