Lehman CEO Fuld Faces His Critics

Updated from 11:47 a.m. EDT

Lehman Brothers(LEH) CEO Richard Fuld put the target on his back Monday, as he kicked off the beleaguered firm's conference call to discuss its $2.8 billion second-quarter loss.

Fuld faced analysts for the first time since Lehman ousted CFO Erin Callan and COO Joseph Gregory on Thursday, three days after the firm warned of its losses. In typical fashion, the type-A Fuld took charge of the conference call from the outset, perhaps mindful he could be the next to lose his job if shareholders remain unhappy with the direction the brokerage house is headed.

"This is my responsibility," he said of the firm's poor performance of late, part of an opening speech that preceded his turning the call over to Lehman's new CFO, Ian Lowitt.

During the question-and-answer session, Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo pressed Lehman executives to provide clarity on some of the vague numbers the firm, in typical brokerage firm fashion, provided. In one memorable exchange, he asked Fuld to elaborate on a comment he made about being "fine" with valuations the firm provided.

"The reason I ask is that there were cases of other top management officials saying they were fine and in the next quarter we had big writedowns again, so what's the likelihood of something like that happening?" Mayo asked.

Fuld said he couldn't speak for other CEOs, but attributed some of the problems to sudden market shifts. Then he made clear Lehman isn't fudging its numbers.

"My intention at the close of each quarter is to make sure that we are marked appropriately so when we start off the next quarter we have a clean slate," Fuld said.