Sale? Not So Fast
South Financial Group's attractive Southern branch network, spotty earnings history, and recent management changes may prompt some observers to peg it as a takeover target.However, Mack Whittle Jr., the Greenville, S.C., company's chairman and chief executive, said executives must run a company as is if they plan to be around for a long time.
"You've got to run the company for the future, and if the future is two months and you're out, that's one thing. If the future is 20 years, that's another, but we've got to run it as if it's 20 years," Mr. Whittle said in an interview Monday after his company named James Gordon, a career accountant, as its new chief financial officer.
Mr. Gordon was the chief accounting officer at National Commerce Financial Corp. of Memphis until it sold itself to SunTrust Banks Inc. of Atlanta in 2004. He will start his new job Thursday and will succeed Tim Schools, who will leaving the company next month. Mr. Schools has not disclosed his plans.
"James has been with other banks that have been sold — two of them — but we don't have any immediate plans to put the company up for sale," Mr. Whittle said.
From Studio to Board
City National Corp. has added an entertainment heavyweight to its board of directors.The Los Angeles banking company, which has courted the entertainment industry since its founding in Beverly Hills in 1954, said Bruce Rosenblum, the president of Warner Brothers Television Group, joined its board last week.
The board also elected the real estate developer Ashok Israni as a director. Mr. Israni is the president and chairman of Pacifica Cos., a San Diego real estate group. City National has 12 board members.
Mr. Rosenblum was named the president of the Time Warner Inc. unit in 2005. He was one of founders of the WB Network.
Still Settling In
It has been nearly a year since Christopher Marshall moved from Charlotte to Cincinnati to become Fifth Third Bancorp's chief financial officer, and even though he claims to be coping with the rough Ohio Valley winters, he said his family is still acclimating.Mr. Marshall, who joined Fifth Third in May from Bank of America Corp., said in an interview this week that he is settling into Cincinnati. "It's a nice city with strong cultural institutions."
He also is enjoying its culinary offerings, particularly the chili and desserts from a longtime local establishment, Graeter's.
"My family misses Charlotte very much," said Mr. Marshall, who had been the senior executive for B of A's global consumer and small-business banking before joining Fifth Third. However, "as long as we can get through the rest of winter, I think we'll be fine."
