Associated Banc-Corp has promoted Robert C. Gallagher to vice chairman, reaffirming his No. 2 position with the Green Bay, Wis., company.
Associated chief executive H.B. Conlon said the 58-year-old Mr. Gallagher will assume more responsibility, especially for overseeing acquisitions in northeastern Wisconsin and the Chicago area. He'll also oversee technology and operations.
Mr. Gallagher remains chairman, chief executive, and president of Associated Bank Green Bay, a post he's held since 1985.
A 16-year veteran of the $3.9 billion-asset company, Mr. Gallagher will have less responsibility overseeing the flagship bank and more responsibility over corporate strategy. That opens the likelihood that someone new will be named president of Associated's Green Bay bank, the company's largest with $1.1 billion in assets.
"We've been growing substantially," Mr. Conlon said. "This is just matter of (Mr. Gallagher) coming over to help me on the corporate level."
John Cornwell, an analyst with Cleary Gull Reiland & McDevitt Inc. in Milwaukee, said Mr. Gallagher's promotion recognizes the growing pains Associated is going through. As it becomes a bigger organization, more management is needed at the top level. The company has doubled in size since yearend 1991.
"The company's gotten quite a bit bigger, the spread is bigger, and the complexities are not going away," Mr. Cornwell said.
What the promotion leaves in question, however, is who will succeed the 61-year-old Mr. Conlon. The Associated chairman said his retirement plans are "a personal matter between myself and the board." But analysts, such as Mr. Cornwell question what the future holds for Associated.
"One of three things is going to happen," Mr. Cornwell said. "They're going to develop leadership within, someone's going to step forward from (another bank), or they're going to become part of a bigger organization."
Associated has an attractive franchise as the biggest bank in the economically growing Fox Valley region. Its acquisition strategy over the past year has been to increase its presence in the Madison and Milwaukee markets in Wisconsin and in the Chicago market.
Robert Ollech, an analyst in Milwaukee with Principal Financial Securities Inc., said the move shows Mr. Conlon, an active chief executive who has largely overseen Associated's growth singlehandedly, is finally willing to share responsibility. Mr. Ollech is also curious about a succession plan at Associated, but he presumes the company will be taken over within the next four years.
The succession "will be orderly whatever it is," Mr. Conlon said.
