Lurie Retires, Golob Ousted at Merrill.(Merrill Lynch and Co personnel changes)(Brief Article)

Herbert Lurie, chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s financial institutions investment banking group, will retire from the firm at the end of the year. Lurie, 41, who joined Merrill in 1987, was hired by Jeffrey Peek, who then headed the FIG group. Peek left the firm in September after losing a race for presidency of Merrill to Stanley O'Neal.

Lurie, who was co-heading Merrill's FIG Group with Louis Wolfe in 1998, was named sole head the following year during a FIG management shuffle that left him spending all of his time serving Merrill's clients around the world. A top rainmaker, Lurie was pulling in $100 million in revenues for Merrill for five consecutive years, but was criticized as having an overbearing management style which did not build an environment of trust and camaraderie (IDD 8/2/99).

Last year, Lurie was named chairman of the group when Greg Fleming and Matthew Greenburgh became co-heads.

Lurie is the latest of a slew of top executives to leave Merrill within the past few weeks amidst management reshuffling. Most recently, Peter Golob, head of European telecoms, was dismissed from the firm. Merrill's decision to let Golob go reportedly came as a surprise to the telecoms banker. His departure comes on the heels of Internet-stock analyst Henry Blodget leaving two weeks ago.

Golob, who was offered a standard severance package consisting of up to one year's salary plus 40% of his bonus in 2000, headed up Merrill's European telecoms team for the past three years. Golob joined Merrill in 1998 from Deutsche Bank, where he worked as a telecoms investment banker. Among the many deals he headed, one included working with British Telecommunications Plc on its Japan activities.