Wachovia Corp. executive Linda Bowden's new assignment bears more than a passing resemblance to her last one.
Three years ago, fresh off First Union Corp.'s acquisition of Wachovia, she was named to head up the newly merged company's wealth management sales teams in the New York tri-state area.
The region has since emerged as one of the fastest-growing in Wachovia Wealth Management in terms of attracting clients and revenue during the past three years, according to Stanhope Kelly, president of Wachovia Wealth Management.
Now, in a newly created post overseeing all 55 of the company's wealth management teams, she will be asked to duplicate that in a new set of Wachovia markets like Alabama and Texas - markets that were added through its Nov. 1 acquisition of SouthTrust Corp.
The rapid broadening of the wealth management group's geographic reach is one reason Ms. Bowden is stepping into her new role.
She will continue to work out of her New York office and report to Mr. Kelly, who had been managing the teams himself.
But the past few years have seen Wachovia Wealth Management enter, in succession, New York City, Boston, and now the SouthTrust markets. (In addition to the SouthTrust acquisition, Wachovia Wealth Management completed its purchase of Tanager Financial Services in September to give it its first presence in Boston.)
Ms. Bowden said the company's plans don't end there. It is considering an expansion of its presence in Boston, development of a team on Long Island, N.Y., and, in the wake of the SouthTrust deal, opportunities in Mississippi and Tennessee.
"We have the foundation," Ms. Bowden said, "now we want to determine what we have to do and where we should allocate our resources."
The parent company had $436.7 billion of assets at Sept. 30, and SouthTrust added about $54 billion. Ms. Bowden said the SouthTrust deal and Wachovia's opportunities in its wake were among the factors determining her promotion.
"With the acquisition, suddenly our markets got larger, particularly in Texas," she said. "There is tremendous growth potential. Clearly, by virtue of our expanding market presence, we needed someone to make sure performance execution was occurring in each market."
Before joining Wachovia in 1991, Ms. Bowden worked eight years for Citibank's private banking group, where she became the Northeast private banking sales manager.
Geoffrey Bobroff, the president of Bobroff Consulting in East Greenwich, R.I., said most banks are looking to develop their wealth management practice in order to capitalize on the growing number of baby boomers that are approaching retirement. Wachovia has to be careful not to grow too big too fast, he said.
"Banks have to find their 'sweet spot.' That is the biggest issue in terms of finding success," he said.
It was a sentiment that Ms. Bowden echoed. "We have been very measured in our approach to expansion," she said. "We have two very key factors in terms of where and how we grow. We have looked at our general banking partnership as they build infrastructure. That will give us distribution network to build upon. We also conduct a very thoughtful review of market opportunities for high-net-worth growth. We have been very careful and very deliberate and very analytical as we move forward."
From Oct. 1, 2002, Wachovia Wealth Management has increased its revenue 19.6%, to $268 million, as of this Sept. 30. And from Oct. 1, 2003, it increased assets under management by 3.9%, to $58.7 billion.
Wachovia Corp. has retail operations from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas; its retail brokerage operations are nationwide. Its four core businesses - the general bank, capital management, wealth management, and the corporate and investment bank - serve about 14 million client relationships in 15 states and the District of Columbia.
Its full-service retail brokerage firm, Wachovia Securities LLC, has clients in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
