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Notes posted by or alerting Clouseau
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Clouseau
S&L: "Like most banks of that era, BankBoston had dived heavily into commercial real estate lending. After the real estate bubble finally burst, BankBoston ended up with net credit losses of nearly $850 million, punching a giant hole in its balance sheet. Gifford's job was to direct the bank's dogged workout efforts, and he often found himself squaring off against John Mastromarino, a tough young examiner from the OCC...he eventually forced the bank to put $370 million into reserves and to sign a 15-point agreement-which in banking is the equivalent of corporate surrender. BankBoston survived that crisis..but Gifford never forgot the experience of peering into the black hole that BankBoston's loan portfolio had become and wondering how deep it was. The collapse of the real estate market was a defining moment for the institution, "so defining that I'll be damned if I'll ever let it happen again," Gifford says today. - USBanker, 1997 BofB |
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Clouseau
from the Globe, 7/29/95: Call him a golden boy in New England banking, a quintessential Yankee banker highly regarded for being outgoing, approachable and likeable. In many ways, Charles K Gifford outshined his boss, the more stoic, aloof and plodding Ira Stepanian. Now, 52-year-old Chad Gifford has truly emerged, becoming chief executive of the 211-year-old bank following the stunning ouster of Stepanian on Thursday. |
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Clouseau
"Runner-up to Gifford was Lawrence Fish, a contrast in ethnicity and style noted by many. Fish went on to head the Bank of New England just as its huge real estate portfolio began to pull the bank to its eventual demise. A graduate of prep school and Princeton University, Gifford was the son of Clarence Gifford, chairman of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust - a financial services firm acquired during the mid-'80s by Bank of Boston." - Boston Herald, 7/28/95 |
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Clouseau
K Dun Gifford Boston Globe, 5/22/1992 When you do business with a whiz kid who ends up in federal prison, you end up -- in a mess. That's what seems to have happened to K. Dun Gifford, a local entrepreneur, Kennedy family confidante and general bon vivant whose life is a little less bon since he borrowed a half-million dollars and loaned it to James F. Brennan. Brennan is now serving time and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is after Gifford for money Gifford contends he borrowed for Brennan. |
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Clouseau
Lawrence K Fish lost out on Bank of Boston succession: Fish, 42, head of the New England group, and Gifford were thought the leading candidates to move up. Fish built the bank's retail group from nearly nothing three years ago, to the one of the largest and most profitable. Some believed Fish at the least would share any position with Gifford, perhaps as co-vice-chairman. "Larry has to be a loser to some extent but he's running too big a business to be too big a loser," said a former bank official. Still others expected Fish will be getting calls from executive headhunters soon. |
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Clouseau
Bank of Boston Boston Globe, 2/27/1987 When Stepanian was thrust into the spotlight in 1985 after the bank pleaded guilty to violating currency reporting laws, he defended the bank like the company loyalist he is. "Our people are tellers, not detectives. We don't train them to spot crooks when they come in," he told The Boston Globe in an interview at the time of the scandal. |
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Clouseau
Fleet Financial Group ome investors remain bitter over the bank's decision in 2001 to increase Mr. Murray's retirement package to an estimated $5.8 million annually from $2.7 million. Mr. Murray said the package was based on what chief executives at other large banks were offered at the time. In his time as chief executive, Mr. Gifford has emphasized consumer banking, a bright spot for the industry in the last few years, though one some fear may be losing its bloom. Fleet has had to overcome a poor reputation among consumers. A survey released three years ago by Consumer Reports gave Fleet the second-lowest overall rating. The magazine has not done a similar study since, although Fleet says other surveys show it registering a 30 percent improvement in its ratings. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/busines... |
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Clouseau
Boston Herald, 12/15/2004 about Chad Gifford Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino summed up the sentiments of the city's business leaders yesterday upon hearing that Charles K. "Chad" Gifford was stepping down as chairman of Bank of America. "Say it ain't so, Chad," Lucchino said. Gifford's departure marks the end not only of an era of locally run banking institutions, but of a long line of civic-minded Boston business titans stretching back a half-century - men such as Ralph Lowell, Richard Hill and John LaWare. "He's the last of a breed," Lucchino said. "Obviously, he was a leader of the business community. But you could also say he was its heart, soul and conscience." Another friend, Boston ad man Jack Connors, noted that Gifford's heart came packaged with a sizable brain for business. |
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Clouseau
Boston Herald, 12/25/2004: You should be Chad Gifford. The man who sold FleetBoston to Bank of America is unwrapping a package worth $103 million. That's $57,000 for each of the 1,800 FleetBoston jobs lost as a result of the megamerger. |
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Clouseau
from the Globe in 2005: "The decision, disclosed in an internal bank memo, cements Finucane's influence at Bank of America, which acquired Fleet for $48 billion last year. Of six Fleet executives appointed to high- ranking roles after the acquisition, only Finucane and Brian T Moynihan, who runs the bank's wealth management division from Boston, remain at the company." |
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Clouseau
Massey, who chaired Bank of America's CEO search committee, spends his summers in Cape Cod. Ken Lewis informed him, May, and Gifford of his retirement at a meeting in Boston in September '09. The two other non-Mass directors on the CEO search committee, Powell and Holliday, were new to the board. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2... |
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Clouseau
3 Boston-area execs served on search committee for BoA CEO: Charles K Gifford, Thomas J May and Thomas M Ryan they picked Boston BoA exec Moynihan also on the committee: Walter E Massey (chair), Charles O Holliday Jr, and Donald E Powell http://bit.ly/fshEhT |
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Clouseau
Charles Gifford helped keep Brian T Moynihan on at Bank of America from the Globe - http://bit.ly/e3X7PM - Then Gifford, Moynihan’s former boss at Fleet, and other board members nudged Lewis to find another spot for Moynihan. “A bit scary willing to let Brian go,’’ Gifford wrote in an e-mail to another board member, a copy of which has been obtained by the Globe. “He’s a key character in understanding all that’s on plate.’’ Lewis’s solution was to replace general counsel Tim Mayopoulos with Moynihan in early December. |
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Aleinad @Clouseau Slow day at work -- but it's never a slow day in the American powerweb ;) |
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Clouseau wow @Aleinad wow |
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Hbomb @Clouseau this was reallllly interesting. definitely worth a read |
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Clouseau Domhoff's "Social Cohesion and the Bohemian Grove" is great background reading for this stuff. http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica... |
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Clouseau and here's Gergen's face getting all strange when he's asked about the Bohemian Grove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHFoUZEjuNM |
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LuckyJimJD @Clouseau That's what he always sounds like to me! |
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Clouseau @LuckyJimJD David Gergen. David Gergen. David Gergen? David Gergen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epN75xT1fiU |
