McCall Leaves NYSE Board

The exodus from the New York Stock Exchange continued Thursday with lead director Carl McCall becoming the first board member to resign since Chairman Dick Grasso stepped down.

McCall announced his decision in a letter to John Reed, the NYSE's new interim chairman and chief executive. McCall, the former New York comptroller, said his resignation would be effective the end of business Monday, which is Reed's first official day on the job.

In the letter, McCall said he was stepping down "to insure that you and the NYSE can move forward without being encumbered by the past."

McCall was the chairman of the compensation committee that officially approved former chairman Richard Grasso's $139.5 million pay package.

McCall helped the exchange navigate the Grasso crisis but drew criticism when he claimed that he and other NYSE directors never fully understood all of the details of the pay package.

McCall's resignation could be the first of many on the NYSE's 27-member board. McCall was one of 11 board members who met yesterday with a group of state treasurers and pension fund manager seeking a series of major reforms at the NYSE.

Reed, traveling in Europe, told Bloomberg on Wednesday he'd like to see the size of the NYSE board cut in half.

In his letter, McCall said he plans to present Reed with a list of corporate governance reforms next Monday, after chairing a meeting of an NYSE special committee on the matter. McCall said he hopes the committee will support a number of reforms, including adding more investor representatives to the NYSE board, re-electing directors each year and moving forward with a plan to separate the exchange's trading business from its regulatory division.

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