Chairman of BankAmerica's Alaska Subsidiary Resigns Abruptly After

Michael D. Jalone had worked 18 years at BankAmerica Corp., the last three as chairman and president of its $236 million-asset Alaska bank subsidiary. By the morning of Feb. 7, he had had enough.

Mr. Jalone, 50, unexpectedly resigned during a breakfast meeting with his boss, John V. Rindlaub, head of the company's Northwest region, and chairman of its Washington bank.

"I just felt we had been at loggerheads for some time," Mr. Jalone said in a telephone interview from his Anchorage home.

Mr. Jalone, who said he is unsure what he will do next, has been replaced on an interim basis by Richard W. Larson, senior vice president and manager of the Washington bank's commercial services division.

The Alaska bank's return on assets, 0.22% in the first nine months of 1995, ranks it among BankAmerica's least profitable units.

But Mr. Jalone said the low profits were expected, since the bank has more than doubled its branches to 11 since he arrived by opening outlets in supermarkets. The Alaska bank has also successfully diversified into small business and consumer lending, growing its book of loans 40% last year to $212 million.

Mr. Jalone said that when he first moved to Alaska from his job as head of BankAmerica's wine industry lending unit in Northern California, he was happy.

But, he said, he became increasingly frustrated - with the time demands of his job, and with corporate politics. Mr. Jalone said he had wanted to open more branches than his bosses did. He also thought Alaska should have been exempted from the company's move toward centralization.

"Alaska is a long way from the lower 48," Mr. Jalone said. "Sometimes you have to make allowances."

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