Lehman Brothers has shaken up its finance department: the investment bank says chief financial officer Chris O’Meara will assume the role of global head of risk management, and will be replaced by Erin Callan. The changes are effective December 1. As part of the announcement, Lehman also says Madelyn Antoncic will assume the newly created position of global head of financial market policy relations.
As global head of risk management, O’Meara will be responsible for all aspects of the firm’s risk profile, including oversight of risk-management policies, procedures, analytics, and metrics. In conjunction with Lehman’s executive committee, he will also monitor firmwide risk appetite, trading limits, and required equity capital.
O’Meara joined Lehman Brothers in 1994 and was named CFO in December 2004. During his tenure with the firm, he has served in several key roles across finance, including as global controller, head of expense management, CFO of investment banking, and head of financial-management information.
When Callan takes the CFO reins later this year, she will oversee the firm’s finance organization, including treasury, tax, and financial control and reporting, and will join Lehman’s executive committee. Callan began her career at Lehman in 1995 and was named a managing director in June 2000. She is currently responsible for heading global hedge-fund coverage, a new initiative launched in early 2006 within the investment-banking division. Prior to that, she headed the Global Finance Solutions Group and the Global Finance Analytics Group within the investment-banking unit.
In her newly created role, Antoncic will focus on building relationships with key sovereign and financial officials regarding policy issues as they affect the firm and the markets, noted a Lehman press statement. Antoncic has been the global head of risk management for the past five years, having joined the bank in 1999 as head of risk policy. During this time, she oversaw the development and implementation of Lehman’s comprehensive risk framework.
Antoncic previously served as a Federal Reserve economist, an international bank treasurer, and a risk manager. “Madelyn Antoncic and Chris O’Meara are very strong managers,” Eileen Fahey, a managing director at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters, adding that she does not know Callan. “O’Meara is very well respected in the financial arena, and as CFO should know a lot about the products, their management, and how to value them.”