John Thain was a man in heavy demand. While the jury is out on whether the NYSE will emerge as the unquestioned world exchange leader, he was seen as decisive and shrewd, especially for his deals with Euronext and Archipelago. So when Merrill Lynch and Citigroup needed new CEOs, his name kept cropping up. As the next CEO of Merrill Lynch, it will be interesting to see how his Goldman Sachs pedigree affects his turnaround efforts. Let's face it, Stanley O'Neal embraced a Goldman Sachs-like model. Unfortunately, it blew up in his face. Some think that Thain represents the Goldman tradition and will make Merrill even more of a balance sheet-savvy risk-driven company. Maybe. I doubt he'll jettison the brokerage division. It will be interesting to see his first moves.  

For more:
- here's an article from TheStreet.com

Related articles:
- Will John Thain become CEO of Citigroup?
- Forcing the succession issue at Morgan Stanley
- Whatever happened to succession planning?