Erin Callan, Lehman's ex-CFO, goes public

Lehman's Erin Callan

by Patricia Sellers

Erin Callan is Wall Street's Greta Garbo.

After Lehman Brothers (BCS) fired her as chief financial officer in June 2008 -- four months before the firm filed Chapter 11 -- Callan fled to her home in the Hamptons. She's been holed up in Long Island's affluent beach enclave for the past two years. Former colleagues and friends say she's incommunicado, and she's refused to speak to the press.

Until today. After a piece called "Inside Erin Callan's Hamptons Hideaway" popped up on CNBC.com, I called Callan on her cell phone. She answered.

"I'm living a different life," she said, after declaring that she did not want to talk.

We chatted for four minutes, mainly about last year's Fortune story, "The fall of a Wall Street highflier," in which I chronicled her controversial rise, her career collapse, and her escape to this "different life" that involves a boyfriend named Anthony Montella, who went to her high school and grew up to be a firefighter.

"On the whole, it was fair," Callan, 45, said about the profile (in which she refused to cooperate). "I'm not ready to talk," she said today. "And I don't know if I ever will be ready to step out into public view."

Anonymity has its appeal when you're a target of multiple investigations into the history's biggest bankruptcy. Callan is named in a lawsuit filed by California Public Employees' Retirement System two weeks ago. The giant pension fund known as CALPERS charges Callan, former Lehman CEO Dick Fuld and other executives and directors with making false statements in the months leading up to the Wall Street giant's failure.

Callan wouldn't comment on the fraud allegations that still swirl around her. As we closed the conversation, I wished her well. "Anthony wishes you well too," she replied.

Posted in: Dick Fuld, Erin Callan, finance, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Wall Street

• Lehman's ex-CFO Callan on short seller Einhorn

  by Patricia Sellers

  The latest on the probes into Lehman Brothers (BCS): Fox Business Network's Charlie Gasparino reports that the House Financial Services Committee is weighing the idea of calling short seller David Einhorn as a public witness or to a private meeting to talk about accounting gimmickry that led to Lehman's bankruptcy. I reached Einhorn's spokesman, who declines to comment.

  Whether or not Einhorn, who was Lehman's biggest and loudest MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Mar 24, 2010 10:26 AM ET
  Posted in: Erin Callan, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Wall Street

• Women execs rising, moving, struggling

  by Patricia Sellers

  I'm back from Brazil. Looking forward to filling you in on my whirlwind adventure, where I saw a booming middle-class and lots of opportunity.

  But right now, a catch-up on well-known women who moved up and down and over while I was away. Christiane Amanpour's leap to ABC News is big. For perspective, last year at a Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner in New York, Amanpour gave a tribute MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Mar 22, 2010 1:22 PM ET
  Posted in: Charlene Begley, cnn, Erin Callan, FORTUNE MPWomen, General Electric, Joanne Bradford, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Power Shift, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Yahoo

• Lehman ex-CFO Callan under new scrutiny

  by Patricia Sellers

  "The fall of a Wall Street highflier," in the latest issue of Fortune, portrays Erin Callan as a star banker at Lehman Brothers who is catapulted to CFO, finds herself in a maelstrom, and flames out--all the while maintaining a fierce determination to perform for her bosses.

  Ever since Lehman (BCS) died in September 2008, one key question has been: Was Callan so eager to please CEO Dick MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Mar 12, 2010 5:20 PM ET
  Posted in: Erin Callan, finance, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Wall Street

• Lehman ex-CFO Erin Callan: She's back!

  "Whatever happened to Erin Callan?" has been a Wall Street mystery ever since early last year, when she walked out of her post-Lehman place of employment, Credit Suisse (CS). Callan cut off contact with practically everyone she knew. Rumors abounded about her fate.

  I found her. Well, at least I found out what the former CFO of Lehman Brothers (BCS) is doing now. (It's fascinating and not exactly tragic.) To learn MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Mar 8, 2010 3:25 PM ET
  Posted in: banks, Erin Callan, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Wall Street

• Buffett's bet to keep jobs in America

  "If you buy a railroad, you can't move it to China or to India or anyplace else. You are betting on the United States. I can't think of a surer bet."

  - Warren Buffett, explaining Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKB) $44 billion buyout of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI).

  Click here to see Buffett talking about his biggest deal ever with CNNMoney anchor Poppy Harlow.

  While the size was a surprise, the bet on America MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Nov 4, 2009 6:56 PM ET
  Posted in: berkshire hathaway, economy, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Power Point, stock market, Wall Street, Warren Buffett

• Genentech president jumps to a new life

  Another Fortune Most Powerful Woman -- a longtime member of our annual Power 50 list -- is leaving the corporate world. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, who was Genentech's (DNA) president of product development, is heading to the University of California San Francisco as chancellor.

  Desmond-Hellmann's departure from business's upper echelons (She ranked No. 13 on Fortune's 2008 Power 50 list) adds to the trend of top women execs leaving corporations and deciding not MORE

  Patricia Sellers - May 1, 2009 3:41 PM ET
  Posted in: Best Companies to Work For, Citigroup, Dawn Hudson, DNA, education, Erin Callan, FORTUNE MPWomen, Genentech, health care, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, P&G, PepsiCo, Personal Power, pharmaceutical, pharmaceuticals, Postcards, Power Shift, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Sallie Krawcheck, Sue Decker, Susan Arnold, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, UCSF, Yahoo, Zoe Cruz

• Signs of spring

  We took a day off! After producing three issues of Fortune back to back -- three in three weeks -- Andy Serwer gave us a free Friday. (Thank you, boss!)

  What a day to be out of the office. Perfect sunny, blue-sky day in New York, temp in the mid-70s. I had a lunch scheduled and decided not to cancel it.

  I'm glad I didn't. It was a fun and fascinating lunch with Hannah Burns, MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Apr 24, 2009 10:03 PM ET
  Posted in: banks, Citigroup, finance, Lehman Brothers, Postcards, Wall Street

• This Week: The best and the worst behavior

  This was a week of extreme behavior. From embarrassment to enlightenment. We learned that John Thain, ousted by Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis, redecorated his Merrill Lynch office at a cost of more than $1.2 million. People who worked with Thain pre-Merrill tell me that he was not a really extravagant guy. But he was, at times, clueless.

  Three people who worked with Thain at the New York Stock MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Jan 30, 2009 8:03 PM ET
  Posted in: Bank of America, banks, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Bloomberg, CEOs, Dick Fuld, Dick GRasso, education, finance, Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson, John Thain, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, Lehman Brothers, management, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, philanthropy, Postcards, Power Shift, Room to Read, Wall Street, Washington

• This week: Moves at BofA, Best Buy and beyond

  This was a week of transitions. Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. A little-known Congresswoman named Kirsten Gillibrand, who beat Caroline Kennedy for Hillary's Senate seat and reminded us that power and privilege don't mix well these days.

  John Thain's ouster at Bank of America (BAC) also reminded us of that. I met the former Merrill Lynch boss briefly only three times. He seemed like Clark Kent: solid, a bit boring, and cryptic. MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Jan 23, 2009 4:41 PM ET
  Posted in: banks, Best Buy, Beth Wilkinson, boards, Brad Anderson, BRian Dunn, CEOs, Cisco, Facebook, fannie mae, finance, FORTUNE MPWomen, Goldman Sachs, Hank Paulson, Jami Miscik, Jane Shaw, John Thain, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, Lehman Brothers, management, Merrill Lynch. Bank of America, Obama, Padmasree Warrior, politics, Postcards, Power Shift, Sheryl Sanberg, Silicon Valley, Starbucks, technology, Wall Street, Washington