With Bank of America’s coming arrival, officials downplay Fleet’s high-profile departures
The departure of FleetBoston Financial Corp.’s top Rhode Island executive,
Neil D. Steinberg, this month will leave Bank of America without a single high-profile
local executive to provide continuity as the North Carolina bank takes over
in the coming months.
Steinberg, the chairman and CEO of Fleet Bank-Rhode Island since last September and had been Rhode Island president for two years before that, is leaving to become vice president for development at Brown University, his alma mater, starting Aug. 23.
Steinberg is the third prominent Rhode Islander to leave since Bank of America announced it was taking over FleetBoston Financial Corp. last fall. Anne Szostak, Steinberg’s predecessor as chairman and CEO and a corporate executive vice president, announced her retirement last December and left quietly in the spring. And former FleetBoston president Eugene McQuade, an East Greenwich resident, resigned in May. Last week, McQuade was appointed president and chief operating officer for Virginia-based Freddie Mac.
Joanna Robbins, who succeeded Steinberg as Rhode Island president but never took on a high-profile role, also left recently, Bank of America spokesman George Owen confirmed last week. Owen said the Charlotte, N.C., company has not yet chosen replacements for Steinberg, Szostak or Robbins. Asked whether the executives might come from out of state, he said it would be “purely speculative” to say.
“We try to get the best person for the job,” Owen said. “It may be a former Fleet person, and it may be a Bank of America person. We have to take a look at who we have in the market first, and go from there.”
Owen tried to deflect any suggestion that local executives might be fleeing the company. Steinberg, Szostak and McQuade all left because it was the right thing in their lives at that point, he said. For Steinberg in particular, he said, going to lead Brown’s fund-raising efforts “is clearly an incredible opportunity for him.”
In a conference call with Owen, Steinberg himself sounded similar themes.
“The upshot is, I am going from one world-class institution to another,” the Pawtucket resident said. “This opportunity came to me. I have very close ties with Brown, and there’s a tremendously exciting effort being led there by Brown President Ruth Simmons.
“It’s really, in my mind, a question of going to somewhere rather than from somewhere,” Steinberg added. “I wasn’t looking to leave Bank of America. My roots are deep here. … It’s kind of an opportunity to kind of spread my wings and try a new challenge.”
Asked whether Fleet’s Rhode Island presence and community involvement would be diminished by the departure of three key figures, Steinberg said the bank has “very capable, well-trained, veteran people here who will pick up the ball and go on.”
Steinberg said when he took the helm at Fleet Bank-Rhode Island, he wasn’t well-known, but “with the title comes the involvement,” and his successor may soon become a familiar face as well. And the bank will “absolutely” continue its community involvement under Bank of America, he said, because Bank of America has “the same template” for engaging with the community.
“The support is there, the commitment is there. I think you will see that going down the road. It’s just a matter of time,” he said.
From a business perspective, losing so many of Fleet’s most prominent figures is not good, especially if their replacements aren’t local, said James E. Moynihan Jr., senior vice president for Moynihan Financial Group, a division of Advest in Boston.
Already, Moynihan added, business customers have been “flowing in the doors” of community-based banks, because they prefer to deal with familiar faces, and this could exacerbate the problem. Ironically, Bank of America is a more customer-friendly, retail-oriented bank, Moynihan noted, in sharp contrast to Fleet’s traditionally impersonal culture.
John C. Warren, chairman and CEO of The Washington Trust Company, the state’s largest locally controlled bank, said his and other local institutions are definitely stressing their community connection to compete with Bank of America, and the local figures’ departure “adds to the challenges” for the North Carolina bank.
State officials and nonprofits are concerned about the future, and, Warren said, “Neil’s leaving just kind of reinforces the concern.” Steinberg was “just great,” he said, and “he really helped make things happen with so many different initiatives.”
Christopher “Kip” Bergstrom, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, said he doesn’t want to “prejudge” the impact of the departures, but he said it’s key for Bank of America to maintain a “very strong” community connection. Whether Steinberg’s replacement is local or not matters less, Bergstrom said, because an outsider could bring a new set of advantages.
“It could also be good for Rhode Island if there’s somebody who’s really wired into the Bank of America hierarchy,” Bergstrom said. “The potential is that the institution is so enormous now, and the resources that it commands are so enormous, that it could work to our advantage over time if those ties are kept and strengthened.”
As Brown’s chief development officer, Steinberg will be responsible for the planning, managing and operating of all fund-raising programs, including the annual fund, planned giving and major gifts. He will also direct Brown’s next comprehensive campaign, to support Simmons’ ambitious Plan for Academic Enrichment.
“During nearly three decades since he graduated from Brown, Neil Steinberg has built a career based on creativity, solid accomplishment, executive vision and extraordinary energy,” Simmons said in a news release. “His professional experience with large, complex enterprises and his hands-on approach to government, community and university service will add great strength to our fund-raising effort at Brown.”
Steinberg graduated from Brown in 1975 and began his career as an assistant branch manager at Fleet – Industrial National Bank at the time. He rose to vice president and manager of the New York Loan Production Office in 1981.
In 1990, after six years as a partner in a Rhode Island-based investment banking firm, Steinberg returned to Fleet as senior vice president. He was promoted to executive vice president in 1996, leading Fleet’s successful acquisition of Summit Bank.
Along with his position at Fleet, Steinberg is chair-elect of the Greater
Providence Chamber of Commerce and serves as a director of the Rhode Island
Public Expenditure Council, the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, the Providence
Foundation and the Urban League of Rhode Island, among many other professional
affiliations.
