Herbert M. Allison Jr. was named chief executive of Fannie Mae
on Sept. 8, after nearly three decades on Wall Street and with deep ties
to Washington. He succeeded
Daniel H. Mudd.
Mr. Allison worked for Merrill Lynch for almost 30 years, rising to the positions
of president and chief operating officer. Later, he ran the finance committee
for Senator John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and became the chairman
and chief executive of TIAA-Cref, the big money management company.
Mr. Allison began his career at Merrill Lynch in 1971, after graduating with
a degree in philosophy from Yale, serving in the Navy and earning a master’s
degree in business administration from Stanford.
While at Merrill Lynch, he lived in London,
Paris and Tehran,
where he met his wife. He returned to the United
States and a series of senior jobs at the
brokerage. In 1997, he sought to succeed Daniel P. Tully as the head of the
firm, but lost out when David H. Komansky was named chief executive.
Mr. Allison was named president, but the partnership did not last long. In
1998, after a tumultuous period in the markets, Mr. Allison oversaw large
layoffs at Merrill. The next year, he resigned after being told he would
not succeed Mr. Komansky, said a person involved in the discussions. He left
long before Merrill became mired in the current mortgage crisis.
After joining TIAA-Cref, Mr.
Allison fired 500 employees, or about 8 percent of the work force, in a
round of cutbacks that employees nicknamed Herbicides.
Subject: Bailout Czar: Herbert Allison Jr. **Not adopted yet. 
Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:42 am
