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{{Short description|American business executive}}
{{Infobox person
|name = E. Stanley O'Neal
|image = Stanley O'Neal - Merrill EX-CEO on C-SPAN.png
|caption =
|birth_name =
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|resting_place =
|resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
|known_for =
|education = [[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]] in [[business administration|Industrial Administration]]<br />[[M.B.A]] in [[Finance]]
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|occupation =
|years_active =
|boards = [[
▲|boards = [[Alcoa]]<br />Platform Specialty Products Corporation<ref>[http://ir.platformspecialtyproducts.com/directors.cfm Board of Directors], Platform Specialty Products Corporation</ref>
|spouse = Nancy Garvey
|children = 2
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|website =
|footnotes =
}}
'''Earnest Stanley O'Neal''' (born October 7, 1951<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=McNally|first=Deborah|date=2007-12-02|title=Stanley
▲'''Earnest Stanley O'Neal''' (born October 7, 1951<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=McNally|first=Deborah|date=2007-12-02|title=Stanley O’Neal (1951- )|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/oneal-stanley-1951/|access-date=2020-09-01|language=en-US}}</ref>) is an American [[business executive]] who was formerly chairman and chief executive of [[Merrill Lynch]] having served in numerous senior management positions at the company prior to this appointment. O'Neal was criticized for his performance during his tenure as chief executive at Merrill Lynch, where he oversaw the deterioration of the firm's stability and capital position, which resulted in his ouster in September 2007, and the firm's eventual fire sale to [[Bank of America]] one year later.<ref>[https://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2009/09/03/10-gaffes-by-doomed-ceos.html 10 Gaffes by Doomed CEOs] on www.usnews.com</ref> Prior to his tenure as Chairman and CEO, [[Merrill Lynch]] had thrived as a stand-alone company since 1914.
In 2002, O'
O'Neal was a member of the [[board of directors]] of [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]] from 2001 through 2006. He
== Early years ==
Born into poverty in [[Roanoke, Alabama]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stan O'Neal: The Rise and Fall of a Numbers Guy|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15738661|access-date=2020-09-01|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref> Earnest Stanley O’Neal was the grandson of a former slave. He was the eldest child of Earnest O’Neal, a farmer, and Ann Scales, a domestic. In the first years of his life, O'
== College years ==
Their family fortunes improved when
== Career ==
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O'Neal became president of the firm in 2001 in a palace intrigue that eventually led to the early ouster of his predecessor and one-time mentor [[David Komansky]].<ref>"[http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/money/komansky-merrill-ceo-article-1.505855 KOMANSKY OUT AS MERRILL CEO]", Eric Herman, ''NY Daily News'', July 23, 2002</ref> By 2003, he was CEO and chairman.<ref name="Euromoney" /> O'Neal was one of the first African Americans to hold such a high position on Wall Street. He earned $48 million in 2006 and $46 million in 2007.<ref>{{in lang|de}} [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegelspecialgeschichte/0,1518,585202,00.html Christiane Oppermann: Amerikaals Supermacht - Die Zocker von der Wall Street] [[Der Spiegel]], 4/2008</ref> One of his first moves as CEO was to dismiss his number two executive, executive vice chairman Thomas H. Patrick, Sr., and afterward Arshad R. Zakaria, who headed institutional banking and securities. Originally there had been a deal where Patrick and Arshad R. Zakaria would support O'Neal's promotion to CEO, and in return Zakaria would be appointed president. Once O'Neal became CEO, however, he refused to continue this "backroom dealing".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/business/whatever-happened-to-mother-merrill.html Whatever happened to mother Merrill?], LANDON THOMAS Jr, ''[[New York Times]]'', August 03, 2003</ref><ref name="vanityfair.com">"[http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/11/financial-crisis-excerpt-201011 The Blundering Herd]", Vanity Fair, November 2010</ref>
As CEO, O'Neal attempted to get rid of the 'Mother Merrill' culture of [[job security]], arguing that it promoted [[cronyism]] instead of merit. He also wanted to transform Merrill into a trading powerhouse, and to beat [[Goldman Sachs]] at its own game. After the departure of Chris Ricciardi in 2006, O'Neal hired Osman Semerci as Global Head of Fixed Income, on the advice of
O'Neal was regarded as out of touch as the market changed and Merrill steered towards trouble, as he had "become isolated from his own firm. He had no idea that key risk managers had been pushed aside or that the people he had put in important positions were out of their depth".<ref name="vanityfair.com"/> O'Neal was described as a manager who "had never been the kind of C.E.O. who walked the trading floor. By 2006, he was so divorced from his own firm that he failed to appreciate the utter lunacy of Semerci’s desire to clean house. Did he really think Semerci could get rid of Merrill’s most experienced mortgage traders and not harm the mortgage desk? Sadly, it seems that O’Neal didn’t think about it at all."<ref name="vanityfair.com"/> "At the same time Goldman executives were canceling vacations to deal with the burgeoning subprime crisis, O’Neal was often on the golf course, playing round after round by himself", in fact six months before [[Bear Stearns]] nearly collapsed
During August and September 2007, as the [[subprime mortgage crisis]] swept through the global financial market, Merrill Lynch announced losses of $8 billion. O'Neal finally realized the huge exposure that Merrill had to subprime mortgage-backed CDOs, and that the firm would have to be sold in order to survive.<ref name=far/><ref name="cnbc.com">[https://www.cnbc.com/id/30502091?slide=4 Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time] 18, Stanley O'Neal</ref> As the crisis worsened, O'Neal approached [[Bank of America]] and [[Wachovia Bank]] about a possible merger, without first obtaining the approval of Merrill's Board of Directors, which led to his ouster.<ref>[https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aap3.z0pzEIc&refer=home O'Neal Ouster Makes Mess of Maternal Merrill Lynch], Bradley Keoun, bloomberg.com October 29, 2007</ref> On October 30, 2007, O'Neal resigned as CEO. He left with a [[severance package]] including Merrill stock and options worth $161.5 million on top of the $91.4 million in total compensation he earned in 2006.<ref name=FCIR>{{cite book|title=Financial Crisis Inquiry Report|year=2011|publisher=GPO|page=257|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pdf/GPO-FCIC.pdf}}</ref><ref>[https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0712/gallery.101_dumbest.fortune/5.html 101 Dumbest Moments in Business] ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'', 2007</ref>
===Post-resignation===
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O'Neal is said to have an "abrasive" personality.<ref name="cnbc.com"/> When Thain arrived at Merrill he scrapped O'Neal's practice of having the security guards always hold an entire elevator bank open exclusively for him.<ref>Sorkin, ''Too Big to Fail'', p. 141.</ref>
CNBC includes O'Neal in their list of "Worst American CEOs of All Time".<ref name="cnbc.com"/> The New York Times Magazine on April 18, 2010, described O'Neal as one of the "feckless dolts" who helped precipitate the financial crisis of 2007. During the final hearings prior to the firm's merger with Bank of America, numerous people – including a founder's son, [[Winthrop H. Smith, Jr.|Win Smith]] – laid the blame on O'Neal for the firm's downfall and loss of independence.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20081231052345/http://www.forbes.com/wallstreet/2008/12/05/merrill-lynch-oneal-biz-wall-cz_mc_1205merrill.html?partner=contextstory Merrill Founder's Son Rips O'Neal For Firm's Death]", 12/05/2008, forbes.com</ref>
=== Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission ===
On March
==References==
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[[Category:American business executives]]
[[Category:American chief executives of financial services companies]]
[[Category:General Motors
[[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]]
[[Category:Kettering University alumni]]
[[Category:Merrill (company) people]]
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:
[[Category:21st-century African-American people]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:Great Recession]]
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