Nelson Chai
Encyclopedia
Nelson J. Chai is an American investment banker
. He formerly served as the chief financial officer
of American financial services company Merrill Lynch
and briefly as Bank of America
's president for the Asia-Pacific
region. , he is the president of CIT Group, reporting directly to CEO
John Thain
.
and Philip Morris
before joining medical diagnostics products manufacturer Dade Behring
in 1997 as corporate vice president of worldwide field finance; he later became their senior vice president of business development.
, Illinois
-based electronic communication network
company Archipelago Exchange in June 2000. Chai was a major driving force behind the merger between Archipelago and the New York Stock Exchange
; he repeatedly pressured his boss Archipelago CEO Gerald Putnam, to meet with NYSE officials, though Putnam felt that the NYSE would be uninterested and hoped instead to pursue an acquisition of rival ECN Instinet
. In April 2005, when Archipelago formally announced its pending acquisition by the NYSE, it was decided that Chai would take over as CFO of the NYSE in May 2006 from Amy Butte, who had held that position since February 2004. Butte later decided to leave the exchange entirely rather than continue at her planned new position as executive vice president of strategy and product development. In 2006, Chai received a salary of $
750,000 and a bonus of $825,000 from the NYSE; combined with other payments, his cash compensation for the year totalled $2,168,922.
, the new chief executive officer
at Merrill Lynch
and Chai's former boss at the NYSE, announced that Chai would join Merrill in the position of chief financial officer starting on 10 December; the move was part of a management shake-up at Merrill, initiated due to their losses in the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Chai replaced Jeffrey Edwards, who had held the position of CFO since 2005; Thain stated Edwards would assume another unspecified role within Merrill. Chai's new employer revealed that he would receive a bonus of $2.5 million for the 2007 fiscal year, split evenly between cash and stock, for his three weeks of work that year, bringing his total compensation for the year to $3.1 million. Merrill justified the bonus by pointing out that Chai would not receive any year-end incentive payment from his previous employer. Chai was slated to receive a salary of $600,000 in 2008. However, he and other top-level Merrill executives received no bonus that year, due to the ongoing financial crisis.
(BofA) acquired Merrill Lynch in late 2008, they named Chai to head their Asia business. BofA planned to relocate Chai to Hong Kong
for his new position. He replaced Jason Brand, who had worked at BofA for 15 years. However, Chai departed from BofA in February, just two weeks after the ouster of Thain, and was replaced by Ki-Myung Hong. He had not yet relocated to Hong Kong at the time he quit. His departure left just one other member of Thain's management team in place at BofA, Tom Montag as head of sales and trading.
and head of strategy instead. Chai's new responsibilities at CIT include global infrastructure and operating architecture, leadership of the insurance and consumer finance divisions, as well as business development and strategic planning. A little over a year later, in August 2011, he was named CIT's president; following the promotion, he would keep his prior responsibilities as CAO and head of strategy, and in addition would take charge of CIT's corporate finance
and vendor finance
businesses.
to Korean immigrant
parents. He studied as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania
, and went on to receive an MBA
from the Harvard Business School
. He has three children with his wife Jung, a stay-at-home mom. They lived in Lake Forest
, Illinois
before moving to New York City
. Chai previously drove an Isuzu Trooper
compact
sport utility vehicle
, but traded it in for a Toyota Prius
hybrid electric vehicle
in 2004.
Chai has served on the board of directors of the United States-India Business Council since August 17, 2007. He is also a member of the national board of directors of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
.
Investment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
. He formerly served as the chief financial officer
Chief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
of American financial services company Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
and briefly as Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
's president for the Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
region. , he is the president of CIT Group, reporting directly to CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
John Thain
John Thain
John Alexander Thain is an American businessman, investment banker, and currently chairman and CEO of the CIT Group.Thain was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America...
.
Career
Chai served in senior positions at AlliedSignalAlliedSignal
AlliedSignal was an aerospace, automotive and engineering company that acquired and merged with Honeywell for $15 billion in 1999, after which the new group adopted the Honeywell name.AlliedSignal was created through a 1985 merger of Allied Corp...
and Philip Morris
Altria Group
Altria Group, Inc. is based in Henrico County, Virginia, and is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations...
before joining medical diagnostics products manufacturer Dade Behring
Dade Behring
Dade Behring was a company which manufactured testing machinery and supplies for the medical diagnostics industry, based in Deerfield, Illinois and Glasgow, Delaware .- 1997 :...
in 1997 as corporate vice president of worldwide field finance; he later became their senior vice president of business development.
Archipelago
Chai was named chief financial officer of ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
-based electronic communication network
Electronic communication network
An electronic communication network is the term used in financial circles for a type of computer system that facilitates trading of financial products outside of stock exchanges. The primary products that are traded on ECNs are stocks and currencies. The first ECN, Instinet, was created in 1969...
company Archipelago Exchange in June 2000. Chai was a major driving force behind the merger between Archipelago and the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
; he repeatedly pressured his boss Archipelago CEO Gerald Putnam, to meet with NYSE officials, though Putnam felt that the NYSE would be uninterested and hoped instead to pursue an acquisition of rival ECN Instinet
Instinet
Instinet is an institutional, agency-only broker. As such, it executes trades for roughly 1,500 “buyside” clients such as asset management firms, hedge funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds...
. In April 2005, when Archipelago formally announced its pending acquisition by the NYSE, it was decided that Chai would take over as CFO of the NYSE in May 2006 from Amy Butte, who had held that position since February 2004. Butte later decided to leave the exchange entirely rather than continue at her planned new position as executive vice president of strategy and product development. In 2006, Chai received a salary of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
750,000 and a bonus of $825,000 from the NYSE; combined with other payments, his cash compensation for the year totalled $2,168,922.
Merrill Lynch
On 3 December 2007, John ThainJohn Thain
John Alexander Thain is an American businessman, investment banker, and currently chairman and CEO of the CIT Group.Thain was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America...
, the new chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
at Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...
and Chai's former boss at the NYSE, announced that Chai would join Merrill in the position of chief financial officer starting on 10 December; the move was part of a management shake-up at Merrill, initiated due to their losses in the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Chai replaced Jeffrey Edwards, who had held the position of CFO since 2005; Thain stated Edwards would assume another unspecified role within Merrill. Chai's new employer revealed that he would receive a bonus of $2.5 million for the 2007 fiscal year, split evenly between cash and stock, for his three weeks of work that year, bringing his total compensation for the year to $3.1 million. Merrill justified the bonus by pointing out that Chai would not receive any year-end incentive payment from his previous employer. Chai was slated to receive a salary of $600,000 in 2008. However, he and other top-level Merrill executives received no bonus that year, due to the ongoing financial crisis.
Bank of America
When Bank of AmericaBank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
(BofA) acquired Merrill Lynch in late 2008, they named Chai to head their Asia business. BofA planned to relocate Chai to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
for his new position. He replaced Jason Brand, who had worked at BofA for 15 years. However, Chai departed from BofA in February, just two weeks after the ouster of Thain, and was replaced by Ki-Myung Hong. He had not yet relocated to Hong Kong at the time he quit. His departure left just one other member of Thain's management team in place at BofA, Tom Montag as head of sales and trading.
CIT Group
In early 2010, the CIT Group reportedly approached Chai about the CFO position there after they hired Thain as CEO. In June, they announced that Chai would be coming on board, but in the capacity of chief administrative officerChief administrative officer
A chief administrative officer is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. The CAO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, managing daily operations and usually reporting directly to the chief executive officer. In some companies,...
and head of strategy instead. Chai's new responsibilities at CIT include global infrastructure and operating architecture, leadership of the insurance and consumer finance divisions, as well as business development and strategic planning. A little over a year later, in August 2011, he was named CIT's president; following the promotion, he would keep his prior responsibilities as CAO and head of strategy, and in addition would take charge of CIT's corporate finance
Corporate finance
Corporate finance is the area of finance dealing with monetary decisions that business enterprises make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize shareholder value while managing the firm's financial risks...
and vendor finance
Vendor finance
Vendor finance is a form of lending in which a company lends money to be used by the borrower to buy the vendor's products or property. Vendor finance is usually in the form of deferred loans from, or shares subscribed by, the vendor. The vendor often takes shares in the borrowing company...
businesses.
Personal life and other activities
Chai was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Korean immigrant
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...
parents. He studied as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, and went on to receive an MBA
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
from the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
. He has three children with his wife Jung, a stay-at-home mom. They lived in Lake Forest
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
before moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Chai previously drove an Isuzu Trooper
Isuzu Trooper
The Isuzu Trooper was a mid-size SUV produced by the Japanese automaker Isuzu between 1981 and 2005. It was exported worldwide as the Isuzu Bighorn, Isuzu Trooper, Isuzu Trooper II , Caribe 442, Acura SLX, Chevrolet Trooper, Subaru Bighorn, Honda Horizon, Opel/Vauxhall Monterey, Holden Jackaroo,...
compact
Compact SUV
Compact SUV is a class of small sport utility vehicles with a length roughly between . This class should not be confused with mini SUV, which refers to smaller vehicles.- Background :...
sport utility vehicle
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
, but traded it in for a Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size hatchback, formerly a compact sedan developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation...
hybrid electric vehicle
Hybrid electric vehicle
A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional...
in 2004.
Chai has served on the board of directors of the United States-India Business Council since August 17, 2007. He is also a member of the national board of directors of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
The United States Fund for UNICEF is the United States non-profit non-governmental organization that supports the United Nations Children's Fund . Founded in 1947 by Helenka Pantaleoni, it is the oldest of the 36 UNICEF National Committees that support UNICEF worldwide through fundraising,...
.