Bank of America's board of directors fights over Lewis' successor

Posted Nov 9th 2009 12:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Management, Bank of America (BAC)

The Bank of America (BAC) travesty of corporate governance continues to grow increasingly tragicomic.

A quick recap: Bank of America's board of directors took way too long to kick CEO Ken Lewis to the curb and now it can't pick a successor because of infighting. Meanwhile, the board and the company's executives -- including those who are being considered for the CEO job -- have made such a mess of the whole thing that no one who isn't already part of the company will consider taking the job.

Charlie Gasparino of CNBC reports:

Civil War is breaking out on the board of directors of Bank of America over the selection of a successor to CEO Ken Lewis, pitting board members favoring Greg Curl, a long-time BofA executive located in the bank's home city of Charlotte, N.C., with those who favor Brian Moynihan, who came to the company after its purchase of the Boston-based Fleet Financial, people close to the company say.

The North-South rivalry is threatening to indefinitely delay the selection of Lewis's successor. Further complicating matters is analyst and investor pressure to chose (sic) a new CEO from outside the company's ranks.

The only problem with that is that so far the board of directors can't find anyone from outside who's interested in the job.

The good news is that Bank of America's board of directors is at least considering the possibility of snubbing Ken Lewis' succession suggestions. According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "It is clear whom Bank of America Corp. CEO Kenneth Lewis would like to succeed him. Whether other directors follow that advice will help determine if the Charlotte, N.C., lender is ready to break with its past."

While the board of directors tries to pick a new CEO, shareholders might want to get busy picking a new board of directors.

Tags: BAC, Bank of America, Brian Moynihan, inthenews, ken lewis

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-09-2009 @ 1:00PM

sgentilejr said...

Kicking Ken Lewis out was a HUGE mistake. No company, I repeat NO COMPANY____ that has ever had it's CEO kicked out under these kinds of circumstances has ever benefited.
Blaming Lewis for problems FORCED upon him by the Fed is insane. Blaming Lewis because too many borrowers have lost their jobs and cannot repay their loans and credit card debts to the bank is also insane.
No outsider worth anything will accept the job and I cannot blame them. Why would anyone worth his salt want to work there and be blamed for things that are completely beyond the control of the CEO?