Erin Callan
Erin Callan is the disgraced CFO behind Lehman brothers, the largest Bankruptcy in U.S. history, and one of the major players in the global financial crisis of 2008. As a result, she went out to pasture early, and sequestered herself with a handsome firefighter in East Hampton, NY.
Long Island-raised Callan was a talented gymnast and a precocious student: she attended Harvard for her BA (magna cum laude) and studied tax law at NYU. After school, the wonder kid turned aggressive businesswoman soon joined the elite firm Simpson Thacher in the tax department. While on track to make partner, Callan traded up and made a bid to one of their largest clients, Lehman Brothers, for a position there. Impressed with her tenacity, Neil Sherman hired Callan in 1995 and she soon made a name for herself at the firm working on everything from developing and marketing complex securities to maneuvering complex structured transactions for Fortune 500 companies. Eventually Callan launched her own product development shop within Lehman called Global Finance Solutions— a successful venture— that allowed her to showcase her bright ideas.
Amidst some internal controversy, Callan rose to CFO of Lehman in 2007. Lehman was already in trouble with billions in toxic assets, and Callan caught the hot potato right as the company was imploding. She went on a media blitz assuring shareholders and the media that the she would spearhead transparency within the corporation and everything would be fine. Unfortunately, the great Lehman sell-off continued and Callan came under more scrutiny. On June 12, 2008 Callan (and president Joseph Gregory), tendered their resignations and acknowledged that they had failed to revive the company.
Callan immediately began work at Credit Suisse in late 2008 in their Global Hedge Fund department, but quit the company not six months later and vanished into obscurity. Callan famously refused to speak with the media or her close colleagues in the wake of Lehman's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing—one that is largely tied to the global financial crisis. Prompting many to wonder where she scuttled off to, Callan resurfaced in East Hampton, NY where she lives the quiet life and takes advanced spin classes on the regular. She married firefighter Anthony Montella in late 2011, it is her second marriage.
