Ex-Morehouse President, Walter E. Massey, Named New Bank of America Chairman

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Morehouse College president emeritus Walter E. Massey has been named chairman of Bank of America, one of the nation's three largest commercial banks.

 

The announcement came Wednesday after shareholders voted to create an independent chairman, ousting former chair Ken Lewis and leaving him as president and chief executive officer.

Massey, 71, was president of the Atlanta-based college from August 1995 to June 2007. He previously served on the Bank of America board from 1993 to 1998.

His ascension to chairman came as Lewis' responsibilities were reduced by a slim margin in a vote by shareholders. The proposal to separate the CEO and chairman jobs passed 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent, bank officials said. The bank's board of directors elected Massey chairman.

Massey wasn't immediately available for comment, but Morehouse president Robert Franklin offered congratulations.

"President Massey will provide strategic leadership, sound judgement and integrity for one of America's great financial institutions," Franklin said.

Lewis, who had been the bank's chair, president and CEO since 2001, acknowledged shareholders' frustration over the company's $50 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch and Co.

"Our company's shareholders have carried a heavy burden recently," Lewis said in a statement released by the bank.

Shareholders re-elected all 18 of Bank of America's directors, including Lewis. Big investors, including California's employee pension fund, had called for shareholders to oust Lewis and his fellow directors at the meeting in Charlotte, which was attended by more than 2,000 people.

Massey was born in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Lewis was born in Meridian.

Lewis, 52, is a finance graduate of Georgia State University, and Massey received his bachelor's degree in physics and math from Morehouse.

Massey formerly was on the board of directors at Delta Air Lines, Motorola and BP PLC, and was named by former President George H.W. Bush as director of the National Science Foundation, an organization that led the government's support of research and education in mathematics, science and engineering.

He recently was a member of the Gates Millennium Scholars Advisory Council and the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century.

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

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