Bank One Corp. said Monday that it has named R. Michael Welborn as its new head of retail banking.
Mr. Welborn succeeds Kenneth T. Stevens, who resigned unexpectedly.
Bank One, the nations fourth-largest banking company, is in the midst of a companywide restructuring designed to clear up its balance sheet and bring more financial discipline to its business units.
Mr. Welborn, 49, was head of $280 billion-asset Bank Ones middle-market lending operations. David P. Bolger, who oversees treasury management, international banking, and other corporate banking functions, has assumed responsibility for the middle-market segment at the Chicago company.
The company also said that James S. Boshart, head of capital markets, will take on banking for large U.S. corporate customers.
Mr. Stevens will remain at Bank One for a few weeks to assist Mr. Welborn in transition, the company said.
In an interview Monday, Mr. Welborn said he intends to spend some time with the retail banks 30,000 employees before making changes, but added that there will be change.
Mr. Welborn will remain in Chicago. Mr. Stevens had run the consumer business out of Columbus, Ohio.
This is the latest in a series of executive shuffles started when James Dimon, BankOnes chairman and chief executive officer, joined in April. Mr. Welborn was promoted to the middle-market assignment in May after having run the business for Bank Ones Southwest region. Mr. Bolger, 42, was promoted at the same time; he had been running merger integration.
Mr. Boshart, 55, joined the company in September. He was previously co-CEO of Citigroups European investment bank, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.
Were more closely aligning capital markets with the appropriate large corporate functions to more effectively serve our customers, Mr. Dimon said in a statement released Monday.
Mr. Stevens was one of the survivors of Bank Ones old order, having joined the company in 1996 to run the retail unit under then-chairman John B. McCoy. Before joining Bank One, Mr. Stevens held several positions in the food industry, in assignments at General Mills, PepsiCo, and Taco Bell Corp. He also worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.
He joined Bank One as it was undergoing a radical centralization of its management structure. Bank Ones retail group has eight million individual customers, 450,000 small-business customers, and 1,800 branches in 14 states. The retail unit is responsible for about one-third of Bank Ones profits.
In recent months Mr. Stevens oversaw the installation of new technology in the banking centers and the standardization of the retail banks systems and products. We in the retail group have prided ourselves on being very disciplined from a financial standpoint, and our results have been very good year over year in the last three years, he said in a recent interview with American Banker.
Mr. Dimon has replaced many of the managers from the old Bank One with those he knows from his previous job as president of Citigroup Inc. or people inside the company whose management style is similar to his own. Hes making the right changes, said Susan Roth, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. The company wasnt functioning at or even near optimal performance levels before Jamie arrived.
In an interview Monday, Mr. Stevens said he told Mr. Dimon two weeks ago of his decision to leave. He said he would disclose details of his next job in a couple of weeks, adding only that he will work in Columbus and outside the banking industry.
Jennifer A. Kingson contributed to this report.
