Merrill's New Navigator

Stan O'Neal's exit as chief executive and chairman of Merrill Lynch swings a spotlight on a little-known member of the board: Alberto Cribiore, who will serve as the interim chairman and who will lead the board's search for a new C.E.O.

Cribiore, who founded and runs the private equity firm Brera Capital, is an experienced deal maker.

A native of Milan, he was top of his class at Bocconi University, one of the leading business and economics schools in Europe. He worked for Giovanni Agnelli, the glamorous corporate chieftain who before his death in 2003 ran a conglomerate that included Fiat, the newspaper La Stampa, and the Juventus soccer team. Cribiore first came to the United States to buy businesses for Agnelli.

In the 1980's he was a lieutenant to Steve Ross, an acquisitive entrepreneur who, starting with parking garages in Manhattan, built up Warner Communications before agreeing to a $14 billion merger with Time in 1989.

Working with Ross was "my way to become a certified American executive," Cribiore recalled in a 1994 interview with Institutional Investor.

In 1985, he joined the private equity firm Clayton, Dublier & Rice. He founded Brera, now with $680 million in assets, in 1997.

Under O'Neal, Merrill Lynch began a push into private equity, and the firm's board has strong representation from the buyout business. In addition to Cribiore, another former Clayton Dubilier executive, Ann Reese, is on the board, as is Charles Rossotti, a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group.

Cribiore was O'Neal's first nomination to the board, which he joined in 2003. The New York Times says that in the late 1990's, Cribiore came close to persuading O'Neal to join Brera.

The addition of Cribiore gave the board a greater European influence, helpful to an increasingly global firm.

"I have basically two feet in the United States, but also a tail in Europe, which I think was attractive to Merrill," Cribiore told the Daily Deal in 2003.

Cribiore will need to summon all his deal-making abilities to guide Merrill to a C.E.O. selection that satisfies investors and helps keep top talent at the firm from leaving.

Jeffrey Cane

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