Earlier this week the Bank of America Shareholders and Board of Directors voted to strip Ken Lewis of his dual role as Chairman and CEO.
For the moment Lewis will remain in his position as CEO however he lost his Chairman authority to highly qualified, well-respected, Educator and Chicago resident, Dr. Walter Massey (an African-American).
I'm sure this move didn't really take anyone by surprise, in all honesty I don't quite understand why it took so long.
Although many of Lewis' Charlotte, NC supporters were maybe sad to him relieved of his Chairman post, the end result is that this decision may in fact perhaps help save BOFA from an untimely demise like that of his former competitor, Wachovia Corp.
Other than his poor decision to purchase the "Merrill Lynch mess", here are four reasons why former North Carolina Banking Industry "Superstar" was almost thrown completely out of BOFA on his head.
Let these four reasons set a precedent of what NOT to do as the Chairman or CEO of any company.
1) Ken Lewis had become extremely arrogant and too big for his britches.
Its one thing to accept Bail Out money and conduct bad business at the expense of Taxpayers, its another thing to appear entitled by continuing to do as you please without accountability.
To make matters worse, he PO'd Congresswoman Maxine Waters during his testimony before the Congressional Finance Committee in February, regarding the use of TARP funds.
Why?
Lewis appeared too snooty and out of touch with the "little people". He also cut off Congresswoman Waters as she was questioning all eight "Captains of the Universe" on how foolishly they spent valuable Taxpayer money. For Shame!
No one messes with Maxine long known to be an Advocate of the "common people", like that.
2) Lewis, a born and bred Southerner, often appeared as though he had a thing against the Northern-based Wall Street Banking crowd. You know that old "Civil War/ Union vs. Confederacy grudge".
Bless his dear heart, he really believed that hype about Charlotte, NC being the "Wall Street of the South".
The reality is that unless the entire New York City-based Wall Street burns to the ground, it will ALWAYS rule the National Banking Industry in some way even if the Government does intervenes.
3) He did the unthinkable and fired Merrill Lynch's John Thain, who was a Wall Street favorite.
Did Lewis really think he was going to get away with that? Not on your life! That Wall Street crowd is as tight as the Legal and Medical communities.
4) Instead of being a real leader by taking full responsibility for not having used good fiscal oversight prior to purchasing Merrill Lynch, as a means of saving his behind he tried to lie that the Feds forced him into that terrible deal.
Come on Ken, how could the Feds have forced you into that stupid deal?
Did you really think we were going to fall for such malarkey?
Oh well in the event he's kicked out any time soon, at least he has tons of money sitting somewhere to help cushion the fall.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters grills the Banking CEOs. Check out Lewis' sarcastic responses to her questions.
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Sources: Huffington Post, TIME, Charlotte Observer, WSJ online, CNN.Money, Reuters, MSNBC, Forbes, Wikipedia, Bizjournal, Seattle Times, Blogging Stocks, LA Times, C-Span, Google Maps, Youtube
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