Merrill Lynch Hires Former Fed Bank Chief

Monday, January 23rd 2006, 10:56 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ William J. McDonough, former president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, has joined Wall Street investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. as vice chairman and special adviser to the chairman on business development, the company said Monday.

McDonough, 71, last served as chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board prior to joining Merrill Lynch. He will advise Chief Executive Stan O'Neal on growing the company's governmental and international businesses.

In an interview with The Associated Press, McDonough said he hopes his personal relationships, built over his long career in business and government, will bring value to the company.

``One is not dealing with a startup here, when dealing with Merrill Lynch,'' McDonough said. ``I see my role as enhancing the relationships the firm already has.''

The new vice chairman plans an overseas trip in February with stops along the Pacific Rim, in the Middle East and throughout Europe. He said he will work closely with Greg Fleming, head of Merrill Lynch's global investment banking division, which handles equity and debt origination as well as institutional sales and trading for corporations and governments.

Prior to heading the PCAOB, a corporate oversight board created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, McDonough served as president of the New York Fed from 1993 to 2003 and was a member of the Fed's Open Market Committee, which sets the nation's interest rate and monetary policy.

He is also a former vice chairman of First Chicago Corp., where he spent much of his time in international business development, and is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.