CIT Names Board Member to Interim CEO

International Business Times
January 20, 2010

Commercial lender CIT Group Inc (CIT.N) on Tuesday named longtime director Peter Tobin as acting chief executive as the company's board looks for a permanent successor to Jeffrey Peek, who retired as chairman and CEO on Friday.

Tobin, 64, will continue to serve as a director while the board seeks to fill the CEO post as quickly as possible, CIT said in a statement.

The lender, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, was said by sources familiar with the matter to be courting former Merrill Lynch & Co (MERDL.PK) Chief Executive John Thain for its top job.

A deal to hire Thain could also include Nelson Chai, who worked with Thain at Merrill and also NYSE Euronext (NYX.N), one of the sources said last week.

Thain resigned under pressure from Bank of America last January, a few weeks after the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank bought Merrill. He told Reuters last year he was looking for a job in private equity or with a public company.

A CIT spokesman had no comment on Tuesday on whether Thain was still in the running, or if the company had identified a preferred candidate.

Peter J. Tobin:

Mr. Tobin served as special assistant to the President of St. John's University from September 2003 until his retirement on May 31, 2005. Previously, he was Dean of the Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John's University from August 1998 to September 2003.

From March 1996 to December 1997, Mr. Tobin was Chief Financial Officer of The Chase Manhattan Corporation. From January 1992 to March 1996, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Chemical Banking Corporation, a predecessor of The Chase Manhattan Corporation, and prior to that he served in a number of executive positions at Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, a predecessor of Chemical Banking Corporation.

Mr. Tobin is a director of AXA Financial (formerly The Equitable Companies Incorporated), Alliance Capital Management, L.P., a subsidiary of AXA Financial that manages mutual funds, PA Consulting Group and H.W. Wilson, a publishing company.

Mr. Tobin has been a CIT director since July 2002.