J. Harold Chandler has resigned as president of NationsBank Corp.'s mid-Atlantic group and will be replaced by R. Eugene "Gene" Taylor, now head of NationsBank Florida.
The changes, which were announced Tuesday by NationsBank president Kenneth D. Lewis, mark the second recent executive departure from the company's mid-Atlantic region. Last month, Frank P. Bramble resigned as chairman of NationsBank of Maryland.
Mr. Bramble, 45, had been chief executive of Baltimore-based of MNC Financial Inc. until that company was acquired by NationsBank on Oct. 1.
NationsBank said Mr. Chandler, 44, had "resigned to accept a position in another industry outside the mid-Atlantic region," but declined to provide details. Mr. Chandler could not be reached for comment, but sources pointed to Provident Life and Accident Co. of Chattanooga, Tenn., as a possibility.
"Harold Chandler was a bright and rising star," said Jon Burke, an analyst with the Robinson-Humphrey Co. in Atlanta. "I'm relatively sure NationsBank will be disappointed that he left."
Mr. Chandler came to NationsBank from Atlanta-based C&S/Sovran Corp., one of its predecessor organizations.
When C&S/Sovran developed severe real estate-related loan problems in Washington in 1991, Mr. Chandler was sent from Atlanta to clean up the portfolio as president of C&S/Sovran's metro Washington bank.
Marketing Job
Before moving to Washington, Mr. Chandler had been an executive vice president of corporate marketing for C&S/Sovran in Atlanta.
After NationsBank acquired C&S/Sovran at the end of 1991, Mr. Chandler was first president of NationsBank's metro Washington bank and then president of its Mid-Atlantic banking group, which includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, and northern Virginia.
Replacing Mr. Chandler in that job will be Mr. Taylor, the head of NationsBank's Florida. bank subsidiary.
Florida Chief Since 1990
Mr. Taylor, 46, joined NationsBank in 1969 as a credit analyst and worked in a variety of consumer and corporate lending positions until he became city executive in Raleigh, N.C., in 1982.
Mr. Taylor transferred to Tampa in 1986 to manage NationsBank's north central Florida region and was made president of the Florida unit in 1990.
Mr. Taylor will be replaced by Adelaide A. "Alex" Sink, 45, formerly NationsBank's consumer banking executive in Florida.
Ms. Sink has headed both consumer and corporate banking in South Florida.
