The New York Stock Exchange, struggling to repair its image and map out a future without ousted boss Richard Grasso, said it would consider splitting his old job, as some of the world's top financial figures shunned suggestions that they might fill his shoes.

One day after recommending, and later accepting, Grasso's resignation, the world's No. 1 stock market, under the temporary watch of board member H. Carl McCall, said it would hold a board meeting on Friday at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss possible successors and the exchange's future structure.

For his part, McCall said in a press conference that he already had a job and did not want to run the NYSE on a permanent basis.

"I am confident that we will be able to find the leadership that is necessary to continue the preeminent position of the New York Stock Exchange," he said.

But he said a special committee conducting an internal review of the NYSE's governance will consider broad changes, including splitting the top jobs, changing the structure of its 27-member board and altering its ownership structure.

The special governance committee, which has been conducting an internal review of the exchange's governance since February, will be ready with its report "shortly," McCall said.

With Grasso now gone, attention turned to who may get the big office next.

One name bandied about was William McDonough, the former president of the New York Federal Reserve and the current head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. However, his spokeswoman told Reuters he was happy at PCAOB.

Spokespersons for Donald Marron, former head of brokerage PaineWebber, and Robert Rubin, chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s executive committee and former U.S. Treasury Secretary said neither man was interested.

On Wednesday, the NYSE asked board member Larry Sonsini, a corporate attorney based in San Francisco, to take the job on an interim basis, but he turned it down.

Grasso stepped down at an emergency board meeting on Wednesday as he faced a flood of criticism for accepting a $140 million, board-sanctioned payout.

McCall, one of the directors who signed off on Grasso's controversial pay package, said he voted in favor of asking Grasso to resign after a spirited conversation.

Until a successor is found, daily operations at the exchange are being handled by co-Chief Operating Officers Robert Britz and Catherine Kinney, a pair of long-time Grasso loyalists.

LONELY PODIUM

Grasso's vibrant manner and flair for joining sports heroes, super models and firefighters in the spotlight -- largely praised during much of his career at the NYSE -- was noticeably absent on Thursday.

It hit floor members square in the face at the ringing of the exchange's opening bell.

"There is relief for some people (after Grasso's resignation). There is sadness and regret for others. The mood (on the floor) was somber and reflective, and it had an aura of disbelief," Robert H. McCooey, Jr., a founder of The Griswold Company and a floor official at the NYSE, said.

On Thursday, Kinney represented the exchange as Jessica Bibliowicz, CEO of National Financial Services Corp., rang the opening bell on her company's first day of trading.

Bibliowicz is the daughter of Citigroup head and Grasso ally Sanford Weill, who also attended the ringing of the bell.

Grasso came under fire in March when he nominated Weill to become one of the exchange's so-called "public" members -- on the board to represent the best interests on investors.

"I was hoping I would see him here this morning," Weill told CNBC television.

Weill's obvious sense of sadness about Grasso's absence was shared by others on the exchange.

McCooey said that many floor traders juxtaposed the "irony" of two dates: Sept. 17, 2001 -- when Grasso was proclaimed a hero after getting the NYSE reopened less than a week after the devastating air attacks right down the street -- and Sept. 17, 2003 -- when he quit.

"That was not lost on most of us. In two short years to the day, he goes from pinnacle of the day" to a virtual pariah, he said.

OPEN QUESTIONS

The NYSE board is expected to face heightened scrutiny for its handling of the entire Grasso episode.

For example, it remains unclear how much money Grasso would actually walk away with. A week ago, as the criticism mounted, he had agreed in principle to forgo an additional $48 million in pay, but it's not clear whether that agreement was ever solidified before he left.

While Grasso's record of building the exchange's business was never in question, the public outcry over the size of the 57-year-old executive's compensation and lack of disclosure about it cost him the support of key Wall Street figures.

The criticism mounted in recent days, with top state pension funds, floor traders and politicians calling for his resignation.

Among the board members to call for Grasso's resignation, according to a source familiar with the meeting, were three leading Wall Street chiefs: Henry Paulson, who runs Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS - news); Philip Purcell, head of Morgan Stanley; and William Harrison, head of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The decision to push him out, though, was far from unanimous. The final vote was 13 to 7, another source said.

Grasso's supporters on the board included Kenneth Langone, co-founder of Home Depot Inc.;Viacom Inc. President Mel Karmazin; and James Cayne, CEO of Bear Stearns Cos., the person said.

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