We speculated recently that the top executives at Lehman Brothers may be vulnerable. The firm has clearly lost the confidence of the analyst community, and the board must be nervous. Unsurprisingly, the firm today ousted COO Joseph Gregory and CFO Erin Callan. (For a brief period, the New York Times was referring to the one-time 'most powerful woman on Wall Street' as Mr. Callan). For Ms. Callan, you have to feel bad. Many thought she had a shot at becoming the first woman to head a major Wall Street firm--not that anyone thinks Lehman is in the major category any more. She will head back to investment banking for the time being. The real question here is CEO Richard Fuld? At some point, will the board assign any blame to him? You can bet it has been discussed. As Bear Stearns imploded, the underling execs took the axe first.  

For more:
- here's the release
- here's our Lehman Brothers news feed

Related Articles:
Sign of the times: New CFO at Lehman Brothers
Women taking their lumps on Wall Street
Lehman executives get nice windfall