It’s being reported that over the weekend, John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, raised the prospect of starting up his own London exchange directly to compete with the LSE.

The move would be made, apparently, if a merger with Euronext does not deliver the hoped-for new business.

Now that would set the cat among the pigeons.

The question is not quite the same as “Who is John Galt?” because we do have quite a lot of information about Thain, who has been recently instrumental in “taking over” Euronext, the pan-Continental conglomerate of stock exchanges.

On December 18th, 2003 the NYSE named John Thain Chief Executive Officer just one day after the SEC approved an overhaul plan for the New York Stock Exchange. John Thain replaces interim CEO John Reed, who was working for $1 a year following Dick Grasso’s resignation when his overcompensation was revealed.

The following is from the New York Stock Exchange’s website:

John A. Thain, 50, is chief executive officer, NYSE Group, Inc.

Prior to joining the NYSE Group, Inc., Mr. Thain had been chief executive officer of the New York Stock Exchange since Jan. 15, 2004.

Prior to that, Thain was president and Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. since July 2003 and was previously President and co-chief operating officer from May 1999 through June 2003; he had been a director since 1998. He was President and co-chief operating officer of The Goldman Sachs Group, L.P. in 1999. From 1994 to 1999, he served as chief financial officer and head of operations, technology and finance. From 1995 to 1997, he was also co-chief executive officer for European operations.

He is a member of The MIT Corporation, the Dean’s Advisory Council – MIT/Sloan School of Management, INSEAD – U.S. National Advisory Board, the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s International Capital Markets Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the French-American Foundation, The Trilateral Commission, the International Advisory Board of BritishAmerican Business Inc., and the Financial Stability Forum Advisory Council, as well as a governor of the New York-Presbyterian Foundation, Inc., a trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and a General Trustee of Howard University.

Mr. Thain received an MBA from Harvard University in 1979 and a B.S. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977.