“The New York Stock Exchange announced today that John A. Thain, the president of Goldman Sachs, will be the new chief executive of the exchange starting on Jan. 15,” writes Patrick McGeehan in today’s New York Times Online.

“Mr. Thain, who joins the Big Board at a time of sweeping change, said at a news conference this morning that he was proud be a part of the organization and ‘looked forward to our partnership.’ “

” ‘I am excited by the future,’ he added.”

“The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously approved a new governing structure for the exchange on Wednesday, clearing the way for the exchange to select new leadership.”

“Mr. Thain, who has been the No. 2 executive at Goldman, one of the biggest investment banks on Wall Street, succeeds John S. Reed, who has served as interim chairman and chief executive since Richard A. Grasso resigned in September amid a scandal over the size of his pay package.”

“The exchange has decided to split the chairman’s and chief executive’s roles as part of the Big Board’s overhaul of its practices, and Mr. Reed will become non-executive chairman, at least for a while.”

“The decision by the exchange to split the jobs was announced on Wednesday by William H. Donaldson, the S.E.C. chairman, who had urged the division to keep too much power from being concentrated in the hands of one person. His comments came moments before the commission acted on the overhaul proposal, which had been put forward by Mr. Reed.”

“Mr. Reed declined through a spokesman to discuss the S.E.C.’s decision or the search for new leadership of the exchange. He has scheduled a news conference for this morning to discuss changes at the exchange.”

“Rumors of the impending appointment of Mr. Thain began spreading around Wall Street yesterday, but officials of Goldman Sachs and the exchange declined to comment on them.”

“The selection of Mr. Thain — widely known as a technocrat — is seen as an unexpected but shrewd move for Mr. Reed. At Goldman, Mr. Thain was involved in many of the firm’s investments in electronic-trading platforms, a number of which are now competing with the Big Board.”

“Mr. Thain would be ideally placed to blunt the frequent criticisms made of the exchange that its trading system, relying as it does on a network of specialist traders, has become outmoded in the face of rapid technological changes.”