An Heir Here, Too
Jim Wells, the chairman and chief executive of SunTrust Banks Inc., has again followed in the footsteps of Phil Humann, his predecessor.On Monday, Mr. Wells was elected to fill Mr. Humann's seat on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's board.
Mr. Wells will finish Mr. Humann's term, which will expire Dec. 31, as class A director and then will start his own term that will run through Dec. 31, 2011. The board has three class A directors, who represent national and state-chartered banks. The other two are Rudy Schupp, the president and CEO of 1st United Bank in Boca Raton, Fla., and James McKillop 3rd, the president and CEO of Independent Bankers' Bank of Florida in Lake Mary.
When asked why Mr. Humann stepped down early, a SunTrust spokesman said Thursday that he was "not aware of any magic to the timing."
Mr. Wells became SunTrust's president and CEO in January of last year and added the chairman title in April.
Branch Centennial
San Francisco plans to pay homage Monday to the first downtown bank to rise out of the ruins of the city's 1906 earthquake.Mayor Gavin Newsom will join Masaaki Tanaka, UnionBanCal Corp.'s CEO, to mark the 100th anniversary of the company's main branch in San Francisco's financial district. The branch, nicknamed the Grand Old Lady of California Street, opened Sept. 8, 1908.
"This centennial event underscores" UnionBanCal's "enduring solidity and strength," Mr. Tanaka said in a press release. (His company is mostly owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.)
The branch, formally called the Banking Hall, was designed by Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville, who collaborated on several other San Francisco landmarks.
From Merrill to Citi
Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. confirmed Thursday that Alberto Cribiore resigned as its lead director to take a senior executive position at Citigroup Inc.'s investment bank.Mr. Cribiore, a Merrill director since 2003, headed the board committee that searched for a new CEO this year. He will start his new job Monday as vice chairman of Citi's institutional clients group in New York.
"Citigroup is fortunate to have Alberto in this new role." John Thain, the executive Mr. Cribiore helped bring in from NYSE Euronext to head Merrill, said in a press release. Citi also said that Mr. Cribiore has become the nonexecutive chairman at Brera Capital Partners LLC, the private-equity firm he founded in 1997. He was previously a managing partner.
