--- title: "Who ran Lehman before the bankruptcy" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/lehman-brothers-holdings/leadership/ as_of: 2026-10-14 keywords: ["Lehman Brothers Holdings","LBHI","Repo 105","Valukas examiner report","Ernst & Young","Chapter 11","Lehman Brothers Inc.","SIPA liquidation","Lehman Brothers Treasury Co.","Lehman Brothers Bankhaus","Lehman Brothers International (Europe)","Plan Trust","Alvarez & Marsal","Richard Fuld","Aurora Loan Services","BNC Mortgage","JPMorgan Chase","Barclays Capital","American Express","Lehman Brothers Special Financing"] --- # Who ran Lehman before the bankruptcy **Question.** Who were Lehman Brothers Holdings' directors and executive officers before the bankruptcy, and which proceedings named them? **Answer.** Richard S. Fuld, Jr. was LBHI's chief executive from 1993 and chairman from 1994, with a board that in 2007 included former chief executives of IBM, Halliburton, Sotheby's and Telemundo. The chief financial officer post passed from Christopher O'Meara to Erin Callan in December 2007 and to Ian Lowitt in June 2008, when Herbert McDade replaced Joseph Gregory as president. Investor class actions against the former officers and directors were settled for $90 million in 2012 without findings of liability, and no criminal charge against Fuld appears in the retained record. ## The boards of LBHI and Lehman Brothers Inc. - Analysis: LBHI's 2002 proxy statement gives the directors' service: Roger S. Berlind since 1985, chairman of the Audit Committee and also a director of Lehman Brothers Inc.; John D. Macomber since 1994, chairman of the Compensation and Benefits Committee; Henry Kaufman since 1995, chairman of the Finance Committee; and Michael L. Ainslie, John F. Akers and Thomas H. Cruikshank since 1996. It describes Akers as chairman and chief executive of IBM until 1993, Cruikshank as chairman and chief executive of Halliburton from 1989 to 1995, Ainslie as chief executive of Sotheby's from 1984 to 1994 and Macomber as principal of JDM Investment Group. Through fiscal 2001 LBHI also had a consulting agreement with Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc., of which Kaufman is a principal, at $12,500 a month. [src-106] - Analysis: An annex to LBHI's November 2007 Schedule 13D lists the board as Ainslie, Akers, Berlind, Cruikshank, Marsha Johnson Evans (retired rear admiral), Fuld (chairman and chief executive), Sir Christopher Gent (non-executive chairman of GlaxoSmithKline), Roland A. Hernandez (retired chairman and chief executive of Telemundo Group), Kaufman and Macomber. The board of Lehman Brothers Inc. then consisted of Cruikshank; Howard L. Clark, Jr. and Frederick Frank, both vice chairmen; and Fuld as chairman and chief executive. [src-005] ## Executive officers - Analysis: The same annex lists LBHI's executive officers in November 2007: Fuld; Scott Freidheim and Ian Lowitt as co-chief administrative officers; Joseph M. Gregory as president and chief operating officer; Christopher O'Meara as chief financial officer and controller; and Thomas A. Russo as chief legal officer. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's 2005 announcement of his election as a Class B director, Fuld had been chairman of LBHI since 1994 and chief executive since 1993, a director of Lehman Brothers Inc. since 1984 and of LBHI since 1990, and earlier vice chairman of Shearson Lehman Brothers and president and co-chief executive of its Lehman Brothers Division; he joined Lehman in 1969. [src-005] [src-010] - Analysis: Biographical sources describe the others' paths. A markets reference says Gregory joined Lehman in 1974 and rose through fixed income and equities to president and chief operating officer from 2004 until June 2008. A 2004 magazine profile describes McDade as global head of fixed income from 2002 and chairman of the Bond Market Association. According to an online encyclopedia article, Freidheim joined in 1991, worked in Fuld's office from 1996 and became co-chief administrative officer in October 2006. A nonprofit organisation's trustee profile states that Russo was chief legal officer from January 1993 to December 2008 and later general counsel of American International Group. [src-023] [src-080] [src-110] [src-112] ## Chief financial officers, 2007-2008 - Analysis: A September 20, 2007 news report states that Lehman named Erin Callan chief financial officer from December 1, 2007, replacing O'Meara, CFO since December 2004, who became global head of risk management. Biographical profiles describe Callan as a law-firm associate from 1990 to 1995 who then joined Lehman, headed its Global Finance Solutions group and was the first woman on the executive committee. She signed LBHI's report of June 9, 2008 as chief financial officer. [src-093] [src-032] [src-074] [src-003] [src-004] [src-017] - Analysis: On June 12, 2008 LBHI announced that Herbert H. McDade III would succeed Gregory as president and chief operating officer and that Ian T. Lowitt would succeed Callan as chief financial officer; a markets reference links the change to the unexpectedly large second-quarter loss and says Gregory and Callan stayed at the bank in other jobs. Lowitt signed LBHI's report of June 16, 2008 as chief financial officer and controller, and James J. Killerlane III signed the report of June 17 as vice president and assistant secretary. LBHI disclosed that McDade, like Lowitt, was a limited partner in investment partnerships of which LBHI or a subsidiary was general partner, receiving $85,420 in fiscal 2007. [src-017] [src-023] [src-003] [src-004] ## Vice chairmen - Analysis: According to online encyclopedia articles, Howard L. Clark Jr. joined American Express in 1981, was its chief financial officer from 1985, chairman and chief executive of Shearson Lehman Brothers from 1990 to 1993 and vice chairman of Lehman Brothers from 1993 to 2008, then vice chairman of Barclays Capital; Frederick Frank joined Lehman as a partner in 1969, became vice chair in 1995 and moved to Barclays Capital after it acquired the business in September 2008. [src-115] [src-111] ## Proceedings naming former officers and directors - Analysis: Investor class actions began in February 2008 with a complaint against O'Meara and others in Illinois, voluntarily dismissed in March, and a shareholders' suit in New York in June 2008; the New York cases were consolidated before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan as In re Lehman Brothers Equity/Debt Securities Litigation, against former officers and directors, underwriters and, from 2010, Ernst & Young. The defendants moved to dismiss in June 2010; in July 2011, ruling on those motions, the court sustained the claims in large part. The court approved a $90 million settlement with Fuld, O'Meara, Gregory, Callan, Lowitt and nine former directors on May 24, 2012; a $417 million settlement with 42 underwriters of Lehman stock was submitted for approval with it in December 2011, a $120 million settlement with UBS Financial Services over Lehman structured notes was approved on December 13, 2013, and Ernst & Young settled for $99 million. The cases were resolved by settlements, not by findings of liability. [src-076] [src-127] - Analysis: An online encyclopedia article reports that in October 2008 Fuld was among 12 Lehman executives who received grand jury subpoenas in three federal criminal investigations into alleged securities fraud connected with the collapse, and that he testified before a House committee on October 6, 2008. A subpoena is a demand for evidence, not a charge, and the article names no charges arising from these investigations. No criminal charge appears in the retained record; in 2015 the New York Attorney General stated that no other law enforcement authority had brought an enforcement action over the collapse, and a 2014 court declaration quotes a newspaper report that prosecutors and the FBI lost interest in the case. [src-092] [src-037] [src-127] ## Sources - [src-106] Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. definitive proxy statement (2002), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2002-02 - [src-005] Schedule 13D filed by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. regarding GLG Partners, Inc. (with annex of directors and executive officers), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2007-11 - [src-010] Federal Reserve Bank of New York announcement of Class B director elections (March 28, 2005), Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2005-03-28 - [src-023] Research source · src-023 - [src-080] Media source · src-080 - [src-110] Other source · src-110 - [src-112] Other source · src-112 - [src-093] Media source · src-093 - [src-032] Research source · src-032 - [src-074] Other source · src-074 - [src-003] Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Form 8-K of June 9, 2008, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2008-06-09 - [src-004] Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Form 8-K of June 16, 2008, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2008-06-16 - [src-017] Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Form 8-K reporting the June 12, 2008 officer appointments, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), 2008-06-12 - [src-115] Other source · src-115 - [src-111] Other source · src-111 - [src-076] Court record source · src-076 - [src-127] Court record source · src-127 - [src-092] Other source · src-092 - [src-037] New York Attorney General press release on the settlement with Ernst & Young (April 15, 2015), Office of the New York Attorney General, 2015-04-15