Green Medal
The Creative Coalition, a New York social and public advocacy group, will honor Bank of America Corp.'s conservation efforts.B of A has gone to great lengths in recent years to promote its commitment to the environment, though some groups have criticized its lending practices.
The Creative Coalition, whose members are drawn from the entertainment world, will gather in Denver next week to recognize B of A's pledge last year to invest $20 billion in environmental initiatives over 10 years. The event will coincide with the Democratic National Convention, though it is not an official DNC event. Ellen Burstyn, Spike Lee, and Matthew Modine, who are part of the Creative Coalition's delegation of observers for the convention, are scheduled to appear. B of A did not return a message seeking to find out whether chief executive Ken Lewis or other executives would make an appearance.
B of A said this week that it had pledged $15,000 to Aaron Piersol's Race for the Oceans, a forum for swimmers to get involved with ocean conservation. It also gave $10,000 to the Cullen Jones Diversity Tour, which promotes swimming in inner cities. Mr. Piersol and Mr. Jones won gold medals for the United States at the Summer Olympics now taking place in Beijing and were in the relay contests that helped the swimmer Michael Phelps win a record eight gold medals in a single Olympics.
Craig Auerbach, B of A's Olympics sponsorship executive, said the Charlotte company sponsored 10 athletes at the Games. Through Thursday those Olympians had won seven medals, and five were still in contention. "It's great when they're able to go and medal, but they are all great representatives of the sport and Team USA," Mr. Auerbach said in an interview from Beijing.
Empty Seat
Frank Biondi Jr., the former chief executive of Viacom Inc., resigned as a director of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., citing "new significant business responsibilities," the company said in a regulatory filing this week.A Bank of New York Mellon spokesman said that a governance committee would evaluate the need for another board member but that no one would immediately replace Mr. Biondi on the 15-member board.
American Banker could not reach Mr. Biondi, whose commitments grew last week when he joined the board of Yahoo Inc., which is trying to fortify its board with big-name directors and ward off a proxy fight with the billionaire investor Carl Icahn. Mr. Biondi, 63, still has plenty on his plate: He sits on the boards of Amgen Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Hasbro Inc., and Seagate Technology. He joined the Bank of New York Co. Inc. board in 1995. When Bank of New York merged with Mellon Financial Corp. in 2007, he joined the new company's board.
