Consumer banking giant Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) has named a new CEO after the ouster of Ken Thompson last month (“WaMu, Wachovia Make Changes at the Top,” June 2).
Robert Steel, most recently Under Secretary for Domestic Finance for the U.S. Department of Treasury, Wednesday was named CEO of the fourth largest bank in the U.S. Not a traditional banking leader, Steel spent most of his career at Goldman Sachs working in capital markets. Steel is also credited with engineering JPMorgan Chase’s recent buyout of troubled broker Bear Stearns.
Some analysts speculated that the primary motivation in naming Steel to the top spot was to prepare Wachovia for a takeover. Gary Townsend, a partner with Hill-Townsend Capital, told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that Steel’s lack of experience in retail and commercial banking was a negative and that he thought Steel might have been brought in to prep the company for a sale.
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