Ken Lewis, chief executive officer and president of Bank of America, announced today that he plans to retire effective December 31, 2009 after forty years of service to one of the world's largest financial institutions.

Lewis began his career with North Carolina National Bank (NCNB) - the predecessor to NationsBank and Bank of America - in 1969 as a credit analyst. He served in a variety of leadership roles within the company before being named CEO and president of Bank of America in April of 2001.

"Bank of America is well positioned to meet the continuing challenges of the economy and markets," said Lewis. "I am particularly heartened by the results that are emerging from the decisions and initiatives of the difficult past year-and-a-half."

"The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already," Lewis noted. "Our board of directors and our senior management include more talent, and more diversity of talent, than at any time in this company's history. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government's TARP investments. For these reasons, I decided now is the time to begin to transition to the next generation of leadership at Bank of America."

"Ken Lewis was a key architect in building a truly global financial franchise," said Walter E. Massey, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "We are on a solid path to the future. The board will be moving in a deliberate and expeditious manner to select a worthy successor to Ken Lewis."

On August 3, Lewis, 62, announced changes to his executive management committee that increased the depth, range and diversity of experience of Bank of America's leadership team. Lewis noted that "these changes also position a number of senior executives to compete to succeed me at the appropriate time."

In a message today to Bank of America associates, Lewis thanked them for the opportunity to lead. "In 1969," Lewis wrote, "I chose to come here because of the culture and the people. We believed that with trust and teamwork, anything is possible. We remain that company today."

Ken Lewis earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Georgia State University and is a Graduate of the Executive Program at Stanford University. He is the only two-time winner of the American Banker newspaper's "Banker of the Year" award (in 2002 and 2008), and in 2007 was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

Lewis has also been a part of number of organizations - member of the Financial Services Roundtable and the Financial Services Forum; the Fifth District's representative on the Federal Advisory Council; past chairman of United Way of Central Carolinas, Inc.; a member of the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy; a director of the Homeownership Education and Counseling Institute; vice chairman of the Corporate Fund Board of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and past chairman of the National Urban League.



Source:
Bank of America