Scanty Details
Search "hanky panky and Federal Reserve," and Google will turn up 138,000 results (a great many of which involve oh-so-clever poetry owing to the rhyming possibilities of the Fed chairman's last name). But you would not expect to see the two terms appearing together in a press release from an actual Federal Reserve bank.
And yet … on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that Gale Epstein, the president and creative director of Hanky Panky, had been named to one of its advisory councils that focuses on small-business issues.
It seems that this would have cried out for some explanation, but none was forthcoming in the press release. Some intrepid reporting — composed of three seconds of typing, one click of the mouse and a quick prayer that human resources here would let this one go — revealed that Hanky Panky is a New York company that Epstein, a designer, began in 1977 when she found a niche making lingerie from embroidered handkerchiefs.
Today the business advertises itself as a purveyor of the "world's most comfortable thongs, panties, boy shorts, bralettes and lingerie," all made in the U.S., and it has a vast network of chic boutiques and upscale department stores around the country.
Kenneth Franasiak, the chairman and chief executive of Calamar, and Rick Lewandowski, founder of Prism Solar Technologies, also were named to the advisory council, which meets with senior New York Fed officials three times a year to discuss local economic and financial conditions.
We're not sure what those companies do either, but you can Google them on your own.
Scholarships Cut
Bank of America Corp. is having some trouble at school.
The Charlotte, N.C., company has scrapped a $100,000 scholarship program for graduating high school seniors in California.
The Breeze, the student newspaper of the state's Santa Maria High School, reported this week that "the highly respected" bank will not be able to hand out cash awards this year, "due to its economic loss in the nationwide financial crisis." The story was published on the high school student news website my.hsj.org.
Nicole Nastacie, a B of A spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that "as the economic landscape has changed, so has the bank's focus to addressing the most urgent needs across the country such as neighborhood stabilization, foreclosure prevention, workforce development and basic human service needs."
News of the scholarship cuts comes as the Bank of America Learning Academy in Jacksonville, Fla., a school exclusively for the children of the bank's employees, faces closure because of budget cuts.
Cooking Up Deals
Wells Fargo has appointed a new senior relationship manager for its food and agribusiness specialty lending group. Based in Dallas, Leroy Startz will head up bringing in new agribusiness clients in the southwestern and southern U.S. He will report to Vito Carbone and John Weubbe, co-industry managers for Wells Fargo's food and agribusiness group.
Startz was the director of agribusiness finance at John Deere Credit. …
John C. Compton, head of PepsiCo Inc.'s Americas Foods division, has been elected to the board of First Horizon National Corp. of Memphis, Tenn.
Compton began his career with PepsiCo 27 years ago. Today, he runs a $24 billion food and snack portfolio for the Purchase, N.Y., company that includes Frito-Lay North America, Quaker Foods and PepsiCo's Latin American food businesses.
Compton's appointment to the board, announced Wednesday, raises the number of members to an even dozen.
Midmarket Push
Former CIT Group executive Marc Adelson has joined Capital Business Credit, a factoring and asset-based lending firm intent on expanding into midmarket lending.
With Adelson's arrival, Andrew Tananbaum, the company's president and CEO, will relinquish those roles and become executive chairman.
As the co-president of CIT Business Capital for most of the past decade, Adelson oversaw the unit's growth to $7 billion of assets. At Capital Business Credit, he will emphasize commercial lending in addition to the asset-based loans that have traditionally been CBC's focus. Midmarket clients have been underserved by traditional banks, CBC's announcement said, and it intends to offer financing of up to $20 million.
