Bank of America Chooses Brian Moynihan As CEO

I have met future Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan one time in my life--in early 2000. We had lunch in the FleetBoston dining room in Boston to discuss the bank's purchase of my investment advisory firm. It was a pretty easy meeting and frankly, we weren't talking about a particularly large investment for the bank.

At the time of our meeting, FleetBoston was trying to figure out what to do with discount brokerage firm Quick & Reilly, which it acquired in 1998 to help the bank compete with Merrill Lynch. Funny how things change...or stay the same.

Now Mr. Moynihan has to figure out how to manage a commercial bank, an investment bank and a retail investment distribution network. He no longer has to compete with Merrill, but he does need to integrate that thundering herd into B of A's prized "outsider" culture. It's a tough task for anyone, which is why it took so long to fill the job after Ken Lewis quit.

I've watched Moynihan's career catapult to places that I would have never imagined over the past decade. Therefore, although the market was not particularly impressed with Bank of America's future CEO, I wouldn't necessarily bet against a rugby player from my alma mater either.

Image by Flickr User photomagnon, CC 2.0