Of course, a 50-50 stock-bond disision is relatively conservative.
Also in the group is Craig Cogut, a lawyer who worked with Drexel's high-yield "junk bond" division in California.
Mr. Solomon is a longtime investment banker who spent his formative years as a manager at Bear Stearns, where he helped run the bank's junk bonds division.
In 1944, during World War II, he was publicity director of the film and special events sections of the Treasury Department war bonds division.
But even now, two decades later, he still recalls how he ran up big losses at First Boston's bond division in 1986.
Mr. D'Auria, also 31, works in New York as a director and a senior member of the structured credit team, in the bond division, of Deutsche Bank.
As head of the junk bond division of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., Mr. Milken was the senior general in the takeover wars that raged through corporate American in the 1980's.
Merrill Lynch wrote down $4.5 billion in debt linked to home loans and ousted two senior executives in charge of its bond division.
Such a trend was mirrored 10 years ago in the firm's bond division, when the increased efficiencies gained from technological innovation decreased the influence of the fixed-income salesman.
For example, after a meeting Wednesday at the junk bond division in California, a proposal was made by John Kissick, head of the division, that would allow the group to split off from Drexel and form a new firm.
The Big Board said Lowell Milken, who worked alongside his brother at Drexel's Beverly Hills, Calif., junk bond division, did not respond to two requests to testify before the exchange in March.
