Standard & Poor's Executive Dies

Leo C. O'Neill, a Standard & Poor's executive whom the rating agency said "played a key role in expanding the company's growth and influence in the capital markets," died due to complications from cancer on Tuesday.Mr. O'Neill previously was president of S&P and recently retired from that position. (Kathleen A. Corbet, formerly a top executive at Alliance Capital Management, succeeded him in that position.) Mr. O'Neill was known for recognizing "key trends driving the financial markets - globalization, privatization, disintermediation and securitization" and for positioning S&P "as the benchmark provider of ratings, indices, risk evaluations and research on a global basis," according to Harold McGraw III, the chairman and president of S&P's corporate parent, The McGraw-Hill Cos. The McGraw Hill Cos. can be found online at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com and S&P can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.