John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) is an American financial executive and investment banker. He served as President and co-COO of Goldman Sachs, and then CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. Thain then became the last chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. He was designated to become president of global banking, securities, and wealth management at the newly combined company, but resigned on January 22, 2009. Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, reportedly forced Thain to step down after several controversies, such as the losses at Merrill Lynch which proved to be far larger than previously estimated, and the award of huge executive bonuses. Thain then served as chairman and CEO of the CIT Group. He is currently a board member of Uber appointed by former Uber chief executive officer Travis Kalanick on September 29, 2017. Background Thain was born in Antioch, Illinois. His father, Alan, was a doctor on the town's redbrick Main Street who has since handed his practice on to Thain's two brothers, Dennis and Robert, both general practitioners. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1977 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979. While attending MIT, Thain joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Career Thain worked at Goldman Sachs, as head of its mortgage securities division from 1985 to 1990, and president and co-chief operating officer from 1999 to 2004. After leaving Goldman Sachs, Thain served as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from January 2004 to December 2007. In December 2003, interim chairman John Reed at the New York Stock Exchange told The Wall Street Journal that Thain would be paid "a plain vanilla number", about $4 million a year including bonus, with no "strange retirement" program like the one former NYSE CEO Dick Grasso was given. Merrill Lynch Before he accepted the CEO position at Merrill Lynch, Thain reportedly was one of the runners-up to head Citigroup. Merrill Lynch and Citigroup sought new leaders following the sudden departure of their former CEOs after the disappointing performance in the third quarter of 2007 due to the subprime mortgage crisis. Nelson Chai, the CFO of the New York Stock Exchange under Thain, followed his mentor to Merrill Lynch and assumed the same role as CFO. Thain arranged the sale of Merrill to Bank of America at $29 per share, a