A Raleigh businessman who recently left the board of Bank of America said the bank should pick an internal candidate to succeed CEO Ken Lewis, Bloomberg News reported.
Former lead director Temple Sloan told Bloomberg he doesn't want Bank of America to pick an outsider with limited understanding of the biggest U.S. bank's operations and strategy.
“I get tired of hearing we didn’t have a succession plan,” said Sloan, chairman of Raleigh-based General Parts Co., owner of the Carquest auto parts chain. “I had the list and we discussed it every month. There has always been a succession plan. You can’t run a company the size of Bank of America without a plan.”
Sloan, 70, a Duke University alumnus, also is founder and chairman of Highwoods Properties, the Raleigh-based real estate developer.
For Bank of America's new CEO, Sloan favors Brian Moynihan, the bank’s consumer banking head, or Barbara Desoer, head of home loans and insurance, because they excelled at the Charlotte-based company, he said in a telephone interview. Moynihan joined Bank of America through its 2004 purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp., while Desoer worked for BankAmerica Corp. when it was bought by NationsBank Corp. in 1998.
Sloan was among 10 Bank of America directors who left the board this year amid criticism over the $29 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
A six-member search committee led by chairman Walter Massey is considering candidates, with the board possibly making a decision by Nov. 26, spokesman Scott Silvestri said.
The search includes candidates who want to live in New York, acknowledging the bank’s biggest units are no longer based in Charlotte, Bloomberg has reported. The leading internal CEO candidates are Chief Risk Officer Gregory Curl, 61, who lives in Charlotte, and Moynihan, 50. Lewis in September named six inside candidates, including Desoer, 57, who has led the mortgage unit since the July 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp.
Sloan said he doesn’t know whom the board will select and he hasn’t talked with new board members. “I didn’t think it was appropriate,” he said.
Read the full Bloomberg report here.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or 
