There has been a lot of noise recently about a January lunch between Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, and former Merrill Lynch executives Dan Tully (ex-CEO), Launny Steffens (ex-head of private clients), and Winthrop Smith (the son of one of Merrill's founders).

As a former Merrill Lynch executive and current radio talk show host, I have been able to comment publicly on the demise of this once great company.  Indeed, I have had the privilege of interviewing Win Smith on the air just prior to what amounted to a eulogy at a public meeting during the transition. In some ways, it has been therapy for the hurt that I, like so many others who gave their lives to the firm, have endured while watching the spectacle of abjectly selfish, mean spirited and arrogant people destroy what we, and those before us, spent a lifetime building.
 
First, Dan Tully, the tough street kid who worked his way up to chairman, Launnie Steffens, for whom I worked early in my career and Winthrop Smith, whose name was on the door, are men of integrity who fostered a culture of client focus and putting no individual business unit's bottom line ahead of the larger goals of the company's well being, including its reputation. Such ideas as "bringing Wall Street to Main Street" and "the customer's interest must come first,” were not merely introduced by the marketing department to mask the other ambitions, as is so often the case in the financial services industry. This mentality was later maligned by the institutional traders and finance types that undermined people like Tully, Steffens and Smith as weak. They derided the culture these men fostered as "Mother Merrill" in a patently unflattering way.  Such characterizations were absurd, of course. Mr. Tully never suffered fools well, and had the courage to always speak truth to power as he did in the early years of the Clinton administration, when he worried that the new president would implement policies that would hurt Wall Street.

Mr. Steffans built the private client powerhouse...the consistent money maker... that the Bank of America sought, even at the risk of having to take the rest of the sick giant whose badly run businesses had required, according to some reports, as much as $85 billion dollars of federal money to stay afloat. Can anyone seriously think that Mr. Steffans was some sort of a missionary, when the work he did with the implementation of the nations first cash management account, a product that required changing the banking laws of every state in the face of intense lobbying by traditional banks, outflanked every bank and brokerage firm.  As for Mr. Smith, this professional executive expanded the company across the globe, particularly in Asia, and did so in away that business partners, governments and clients alike understood that we would not breech our principles for a few extra dollars.  These outrageously successful men, who remain so today in other endeavors, are to be applauded for the efforts to buy back the company.
 
Tully, Steefens and Smith are at a time in their lives, and have the abundant resources, when they could enjoy retirement in unimaginable comfort.  Instead, they were, and probably still are, willing to breathe life back into "Mother Merrill.”  For them, it wasn't just about getting rich...it was doing well while protecting the legacy and reputation of a very special franchise. They believed that you could be successful, still place the customer first, and reward loyalty if it had not become self indulgent. This is something that the people who brought down the company, installed by cynical board members who were later dismisses by those same executives, never got. I was always proud of where I worked and of these three individuals when I worked for them. I never heard that from those former colleagues that live though the last years of Merrill.
 
Finally, if these three ever do succeed at bringing it back, I would do all I could to help, including financially to the extent that I could. I am sure there are many more. In any case, I call on the government, and will continue to do so publicly, to investigate the fall of Merrill Lynch. We are only now learning that the scope of its failure was minimized by Treasury Department, as they, according to some reports, arm twisted the Bank of America to prevent a catastrophic effect on the economy. How did the firm that was once dubbed the thundering herd, take on so much risk that it threatened our country.  What happened at Merrill Lynch? The federal government owes us an answer.