B of A Alum Tracy Grooms to Run Banking Program at N.C. School

Tracy Grooms, a retired Bank of America executive, is the right person to train the next generation of bankers, says none other than B of A legend Hugh McColl.

Grooms will head up the new banking program at the McColl School of Business at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C. Grooms, who retired as B of A's consumer and small-business compliance executive in March, was introduced on Tuesday at an event in Charlotte.

McColl, the former chief executive credited with building B of A into a national giant, was on hand to offer praise.

"Everything we asked her to do, she did well," McColl said at the event, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. "Better than that, actually — she was always promoted."

The banking program at the McColl School of Business is being offered starting this fall, and will train undergraduates to fill management roles at small and midsize banks, which, McColl said, often don't have the resources to effectively train young employees. McColl helped design the program and he hopes it will provide "broad, generalist training" for undergraduates, he told American Banker earlier this year.

Grooms will teach the undergraduate courses for students majoring in finance, the first of which will be held next spring. She starts Oct. 1.

Grooms, 54, worked for B of A or its predecessors since 1986, when NCNB Corp., which was headed by McColl, bought Bankers Trust of South Carolina, the first bank she worked for. She decided to take an early retirement from banking after reevaluating her life, the Charlotte Observer reported, and said her new role is a "perfect mix" of her passions.

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