Well-traveled pro to lead Bank of Boston trade effort.

As a bank that started out two centuries ago financing the imports of local merchants, Bank of Boston Corp. has long advocate that other banks engage spurring international trade.

And last week the $32 billion-asset bank took its own advice by creating the position of director of global trade and naming veteran international executive Ben L. Moyer to the post.

"Ben's appointment reflects our strategy to build on what is already a very strong foreign trade franchise," said Kevin J. Mulvaney, who heads Bank of Boston's intenational operations.

Stint in the Peace Corps

The well-traveled Mr. Moyer gained his first experience overseas with the Peace Corps, helping to start village rice cooperatives in Colombia 28 years ago after he graduated from Yale.

He returned to the United States in 1966 to earn a master's in business education from Cornell Business School in 1968, joining Bank of Boston the same year. He subsequently was general manager for Bank of Boston in Taiwan, Panama, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic.

"I'm probably the executive at the bank who's has the most years overseas," he said.

The 51-year-old executive will oversee a staff of 110 in Boston and the bank's extensive trade-related operations in Latin America, the Far East, and Europe.

"Trade finance is definitely one of the top-priority products for the bank." Mr. Moyer says, adding that he hopes to increase revenues by at least 15% annually over the next few years.

With the third-largest network of international offices among U.S. banks and over 100 offices in 25 countries, Mr. Moyer aims to use Bank of Boston's franchise to go after more business with companies in New England and across the nation.

He also plan to increase electronic processing and communications between the bank's offices in fast-growing Latin markets and its offices in Asia and the United States.

Integrating Worldwide Operations

Last but not least, he is drawing up a blueprint for integrating worldwide operations to improve efficiencies and reduce overhead.

"A lot of it's plain-vanilla sort of stuff, but if you don't take a worldwide approach to pricing and costing, you won't be able to compete with the big guys," Mr. Moyer says.

He.is a director of the International Business Council an educational group that provides import/export training in New England, and a member of the New England Export School.

A native of Sugar Hill, N.H., Mr. Moyer lives with his family in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

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