New Fed Director
Ted Cecala, the chairman and chief executive of Wilmington Trust Corp., has been named a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.He began a three-year term Jan. 1 as a class A director, representing the banking sector, the Philadelphia Fed said this week. He succeeded Coleman Townsend Jr., the chief executive of Townsend Inc., a Delaware poultry and agricultural products company.
Mr. Cecala, 58, has been the top executive at Wilmington Trust since 1996. He joined the Delaware company in 1979.
The Philadelphia Fed serves eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.
Mr. Cecala joined a board of directors that includes John Gerlach, the president and CEO of Pocono Community Bank in Stroudsburg, Pa.; Aaron Groff Jr., the chairman, president, and CEO of Ephrata National Bank in Pennsylvania; and Gary Maddox, the former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder, who is now the president and CEO of A. Pomerantz & Co., a Philadelphia office furniture dealer.
Across the Pond
James Dimon made another stride in his endeavor to make JPMorgan Chase & Co. a more global company: He phoned Tony Blair.Since the two "hit it off" right away, as Mr. Dimon told Financial Times, the former British prime minister became a part-time employee of the $1.5 trillion-asset New York company this week.
JPMorgan Chase derives a considerable share of its wholesale and investment banking income from abroad. In 2005 it hired Robert Lipp, a former Citigroup Inc. executive, to map out a strategy for further expansion.
But rather than scouting for acquisition targets or designing a consumer lending business, Mr. Blair will provide "the CEO" — Mr. Dimon — and the senior management team with "insight on global political issues and emerging trends." Further, Mr. Blair will jet around the world to put in a word for the company with foreign leaders and big business figures.
Mr. Blair said in a press release that JPMorgan Chase is "at the cutting edge of the global economy," and that he is looking "forward to advising them on how they approach the huge political and economic changes that globalization brings."
The former prime minister has another special project. Mr. Dimon has taken up the guitar, and Mr. Blair is reportedly "happy" to give him lessons.
JPMorgan Chase would not say how much it is paying Mr. Blair or how many hours he will put in, but the workdays are likely to be flexible. After all, he also is heading an envoy working on bringing peace to the Israelis and Palestinians.
