New York ? John Reed Wednesday proposed taking authority over the New York Stock Exchange away from Wall Street brokerage and trading firms and handing it to a small, independent board of directors from outside the securities industry.

Reed, the NYSE’s interim chairman, announced his reform plan before the market opened Wednesday. He recommended eight candidates for an independent board that in the future would have 6 to 12 members and would exercise final authority over all NYSE operations, including regulation and executive compensation.

Reed also recommended creating a separate “Board of Executives” with about 20 members drawn from the securities industry and from companies that list their shares on the NYSE. The executive board would advise independent directors on issues affecting the exchange’s ability to compete with other markets.

Reed’s nominees for the new board include just two holdovers from the current board, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and Herbert Allison, chairman of pension fund company TIAA-CREF.

Other nominees for the new board include Marshall Carter, former chairman of State Street Corp.; Dennis Weatherstone, former chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase; Euan Baird, former chairman of Schlumberger, Inc.; Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and James McDonald, president and CEO of Rockefeller & Co., the money management firm founded by the Rockefeller family.

“I think this board will serve the New York Stock Exchange well, and I think it will serve the American public well,” Reed said before going on a two-week nationwide tour to sell his plan to the NYSE’s 1,366 members, those who own seats on the exchange floor.

The NYSE is the world’s largest exchange and controls 80 percent of the trading in its 2,800 listed firms, a roster of the nation’s biggest public companies. The structural changes are aimed at addressing criticism that the exchange has been run for 200 years as a private club for the benefit of its members, resulting in numerous conflicts of interest that compromised its role as a government sanctioned regulator and protector of individual investors.

John Reed, New York Stock Exchange interim chairman, speaks during a news conference at the New York Stock Exchange. Reed, who joined the NYSE in late September after former chairman Dick Grasso resigned amid outrage over his 88 million compensation package, nominated a set of candidates Wednesday for a trimmed-down NYSE board intended to improve regulation and sweep away conflicts of interest.