James McDonald, chief executive officer of investment management firm Rockefeller & Co, committed suicide on Sunday in Massachusetts, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the paper, Barclay McFadden, who identified himself as a friend of McDonald's family, said James McDonald took his own life. McDonald was also a board member of NYSE Euronext.

No one at Rockefeller & Co was immediately available for comment.

The paper said McDonald is believed to have died in New Bedford but the circumstances surrounding his death were unclear.

Rockefeller & Co's chief operating officer and chief financial officer, Austin Shapard, has assumed day-to-day leadership of the investment firm, the Journal said, citing company spokesman Joseph Kuo.

The firm, which started off as a New York family office established by John D. Rockefeller, was incorporated in 1979 and became an investment adviser in 1980, according to the company's website. (Reporting by Santosh Nadgir in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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