Erin Callan, the recently demoted CFO of Lehman, may simply have regarded her new post at Credit Suisse as a great opportunity. But let’s fact it, who wants to be getting a bonus consisting significantly of Lehman stock if you have other options?
From Bloomberg:
Erin Callan, the former chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., was hired by Credit Suisse Group AG to head a unit that advises hedge funds.
Callan, 42, was demoted from the Lehman post a month ago as the firm failed to quell speculation about mounting losses and stem a decline in its stock. She’s taking a newly formed position at Credit Suisse effective Sept. 2, the Zurich-based firm said in a statement.
“Hedge funds are going to continue to be an increasingly important client base,” Paul Calello, chief executive officer of Credit Suisse’s investment bank, said in a telephone interview today. “If you ask hedge funds who are the most effective coverage people, Erin’s name comes up over and over and I’ve known that for a while.”
Calello said he doesn’t think her tenure as Lehman’s finance chief affected her reputation….
“She has maintained strong relationships with the hedge fund principals, they think very highly of her,” Calello said.
While Callan’s ability to land on her feet supports her contention that her reputation wasn’t damaged by her tenure as CFO, there are other interpretation. One that supports her view is that she may have been seen as set up to fail and executed as well as she could.
More cynical views are that she is self-deluded, a very useful trait in salespeople, or that “good reputation” for a brokerage firm employee has become an oxymoron. Therefore by definition her reputation could not be damaged.
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Two words: nice repurchase
Two more: nice repurchase
Ironic she will be servicing those nasty hedge funds. Will she demand no shorting?
Do you suppose she’ll be calling on Greenlight?
So Erin Callan is the Joan Kirner of investment banking – the woman brought in to at least try to clean up the mess the fellas made, but basically set up to fail? If so, good on her for turning it to her advantage.
Excuse the 1980s Australian political reference, but it’s a common pattern.
Holy smokes! She’s giving up those generous mid-year stock options to move? Incredible!
Was Erin C. set up? Surely, but that goes with the territory. Then, too, here signature is all over documents at LEH that may prove to be at least self-deluded. Perhaps she hopes that she’s getting out on the right side of the self-incriminating line, but that’s for another day.
. . . A willingness to lie with a straight face and no detectable perspiration is and always has been a saleable skile. Just a thought.