The New York Stock Exchange is losing another top executive: Larry Leibowitz, the guy known around Wall Street as the chief operating officer of stock exchange parent NYSE Euronext, and just about everywhere else as the brother of “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
NYSE Euronext was bought this month by an upstart rival from Atlanta, IntercontinentalExchange Group Inc., and Leibowitz will leave the combined company at the end of the year, an NYSE spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
Patrick Healy, CEO of the Issuer Advisory Group, is a fan. He called Leibowitz “the adult in the room” who “did right” by the issuing companies, and he bemoaned the “significant long-term consequences” of Leibowitz’s departure.
An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment.
Leibowitz is not the only one heading for the door. Michael Geltzeiler, formerly known as NYSE Euronext’s chief financial officer, is decamping for the same position at ADT Corp. And in a press release this month, ICE listed 27 top executives for the combined new company. Six are from the NYSE Euronext side.
Sunil Seshadri, who will serve as chief information security officer, is the only one of the 14 officers listed for the overall company to come from the NYSE Euronext side, though Scott Cutler and Joe Mecane are among those staying on in their jobs at the NYSE – Cutler as head of global listings and Mecane as head of U.S. equities.
Duncan Niederauer, who was NYSE Euronext’s CEO and its face to anyone with even a vague idea of what the stock market is, is staying on as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange and as one of two presidents of ICE, though it’s not clear how long that will last.
ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher (known for saying this month that small investors are getting ripped off on the exchanges) says that Niederauer has agreed to stay on at least a year. “Which is important to me,” Sprecher said on Bloomberg TV, on the day the deal closed, “because I’m not a particularly good television face.”
The company hasn’t specified whether it will cut jobs, but it is aiming to trim $500 million in expenses. NYSE Euronext has about 3,100 employees, and ICE has about 1,100.
In the Bloomberg interview, Sprecher said job cuts were “possible.”
“We’re going to take the best of breed that we have working for us – the best technologies, the best businesses, the best locations and offices – and really focus on what we can do for our customers in the best way possible,” Sprecher said. “And so unfortunately that means that there are overlaps that we’re going to have to deal with. But everybody here’s excited.”
Managers for Stewart – who, if not best known for being Leibowitz’s brother, is at least known as a constant thorn in the side of Wall Street – didn’t immediately return messages for comment.
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.com.