NASD Likely to Offer Zarb Top Post

The National Assn. of Securities Dealers is expected to offer its top job to Frank G. Zarb, a senior official in former President Ford’s administration who also earned impressive credentials on Wall Street, sources told the Washington Post. Zarb, 61, would replace Joseph Hardiman, who is retiring at the end of this month after a decade as the NASD’s president and chief executive. The self-regulatory organization completed a broad restructuring last year amid criticism that it was not policing itself adequately. It became the holding company for two operating units, the Nasdaq Stock Market and NASD Regulation, its enforcement and regulatory arm. Since June 1994, Zarb has been chairman of Alexander & Alexander Services Inc., a New York-based insurance brokerage that is being acquired by Chicago-based Aon Corp. Zarb has announced he will leave when the acquisition is completed, probably next month. A spokesman said Zarb has not been formally offered the NASD job and is still weighing his options. Zarb will leave Alexander with a severance package valued at more than $12 million.