Thain replaces CIT board member Peter Tobin, who was named interim CEO in January following the retirement of Jeffrey Peek as chairman and CEO. He comes to CIT as two other key managers, COO Alexander Mason and CFO Joseph Leone, have announced plans to depart the company.
"[Thain] is a well-respected financial services executive and proven leader who is uniquely qualified to lead CIT at this critical stage," CIT lead director John Ryan says in a statement. "CIT and its customers will benefit enormously from his breadth of experience, industry acumen and deep knowledge of the financial services sector."
Before becoming CEO at Merrill, a post he held for less than a year before agreeing to sell the company to Bank of America, Thain was CEO at the New York Stock Exchange. There, he presided over the exchange's global transformation into a publicly traded entity. Much of his career was spent at Goldman Sachs, where he rose to president and COO.
CIT filed for bankruptcy, the fifth largest in US history, in early November 2009 and emerged from Chapter 11 protection six weeks later. Its losses mounted last year as more of its loans went into default, and it picked up $2.3 billion from the US's Term Asset Relief Program. Thain told Bloomberg Sunday that CIT could exit TARP within the next few months by extinguishing "contingent value rights" that the government received during the bankruptcy.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
