[8] Chai was named chief financial officer of Chicago, Illinois-based electronic communication network company Archipelago Exchange in June 2000.
[9] Chai was a major driving force behind the merger between Archipelago and the New York Stock Exchange; he repeatedly pressured his boss Archipelago CEO Gerald Putnam, to meet with NYSE officials, though Putnam felt that the NYSE would be uninterested and hoped instead to pursue an acquisition of rival ECN Instinet.
Butte later decided to leave the exchange entirely rather than continue at her planned new position as executive vice president of strategy and product development.
[16] When Bank of America (BofA) acquired Merrill Lynch in late 2008, they named Chai to head their Asia business.
His departure left just one other member of Thain's management team in place at BofA, Tom Montag as head of sales and trading.
[20] In June, they announced that Chai would be coming on board, but in the capacity of chief administrative officer and head of strategy instead.
Chai's new responsibilities at CIT include global infrastructure and operating architecture, leadership of the insurance and consumer finance divisions, as well as business development and strategic planning.