March 18, 2008
Erin Callan delves into the Lehman weeds
Well, no-one can complain that Erin Callan, Lehman Brothers’ new chief financial officer, lacked detail on the investment bank’s first quarter results conference call this morning.
Ms Callan rattled through a very long and thorough explanation of the bank’s earnings, balance sheet and liquidity, with the emphasis on the latter. Given that Lehman has been fighting to persuade people that will not become the next Bear Stearns, that was wise.
Ms Callan faced some credibility questions. She has only just been appointed to the job, lacks an accounting background, had to take an exam before starting, and gave an interview to Portfolio in which she emphasised her interest in strategy rather than number-crunching:
“I see myself in more of the strategic camp. When you don’t grow up in the accounting profession and you grow up more as a deal person, your bias is to look much more at the big picture.” Otherwise, she says, “you really could consume yourself entirely just staying in the weeds.”
She obviously realised, however, that in the weeds is where investors and other banks want her to be at the moment. To judge by the market reaction, she convinced them.
