Massey's final Bank of America task a big one

Their roles also are now likely to end at about the same time at Bank of America, now struggling to right itself after booking billions in loan losses and stumbling with its takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. in January.

Both men have been under fire from shareholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for the troubled Merrill Lynch deal.

Meet Walter E. Massey

Chairman, Bank of America and retired president, Morehouse College

Born: Hattiesburg, Miss., 1938

Family: Married Shirley Anne Streeter, 1969; two children.

Education: Undergraduate physics and math degree, Morehouse College, 1958. Physics doctorate, Washington University, St. Louis, 1966.

Career: Started as a research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, held various professorships and administrative positions at University of Illinois, Brown University, University of Chicago, National Science Foundation, University of California and Morehouse College, where he was president 1995-2007.

Lewis, 62, announced Sept. 30 that he intends to retire at year’s end. Lewis’ decision to leave ends his four-decade career at the Charlotte, N.C., bank that he began working for after he graduated from Georgia State University with a finance degree in 1969.

Lewis, who had grown up in Columbus, the son of an Army sergeant and a nurse, returned to Atlanta in 1992, staying about two years before moving to his next assignment.

By then, he headed the largest division of Bank of America’s predecessor, which had just bought Atlanta-based Citizens & Southern.

Massey first arrived in Atlanta as a precocious 16-year-old undergraduate studying on a scholarship at Morehouse College. He earned a math and physics degree there in 1958, beginning a long career as a physicist, academic leader and director on several high-profile corporate boards.

Along the way, he filled top positions at the University of Chicago, Brown University, and the University of California, where he was provost.

He was also director of the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.

He returned to Morehouse College as its president in 1995, heading it for a dozen years before retiring in 2007.

Both Massey and Lewis were deeply involved in civic affairs during their return stays in Atlanta.

A Bank of America spokesman said neither of the men was available for an interview last week. Massey did not return calls to his Chicago residence.

Massey’s key task now is a relatively short-term job — helping to recruit a new CEO, then stepping aside, said Richard Bove, a financial strategist with Stamford, Conn.-based Rochdale Securities.

As a longtime member of the board of directors, whose job is to oversee management, Massey shares the blame for Bank of America’s financial woes, said Bove.

The bank’s net income dropped more than 70 percent last year, to $4 billion, after it reserved about $27 billion for expected losses on bad loans and other assets. Bove expects $55 billion in such write-offs this year.

While Massey shouldn’t get applause for that performance, said Bove, he still thinks Massey can do a good job running the committee that picks Lewis’ successor.

So does a retired bank executive who once worked with Massey.

Massey’s “got a pretty full plate” but he’s well-suited to oversee accelerated efforts to recruit a new chief executive, said Richard Thomas, retired chairman of the Chicago bank First Chicago Corp. He said Massey performed well as a director at the Chicago bank in the mid-1990s.

“He has broad knowledge. I would say he is not steeped in finance, but he was a constructive director,” said Thomas.

Massey left that bank to join the board of Bank of America’s predecessor. He also has served on other high-powered boards at British Petroleum, McDonald’s and Motorola, though he later dropped some board memberships, including Delta Air Lines, as his role at Bank of America became more demanding.

Despite such demands, Thomas said Massey “seemed quite relaxed” when he recently ran into him and his wife at the opening night of the Chicago Symphony.

Massey and his wife, Shirley, now live in a Chicago neighborhood near the University of Chicago, where he spent much of his career over three decades, including as director of the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.

Massey’s 16 years as a director at Bank of America or its predecessor are likely coming to an end soon for at least two reasons, according to industry experts.

Massey, 71, is nearing Bank of America’s mandatory retirement age of 72.

Also, after the financial crisis on Wall Street, federal regulators are likely to push for more people with deep banking and business experience for Bank of America’s executive suites and its board of directors.

That makes it unlikely that Massey will be pegged for a temporary role as Bank of America’s CEO, said Bove.

“He may be an extraordinarily competent individual, but he’s not a banker,” said Bove.

Bank of America received $45 billion in taxpayer funds as part of last year’s $700 billion federal rescue plan for financial institutions.

According to press reports, the federal government will have informal veto power over the list of internal and external CEO candidates that Massey’s committee is sifting.

Bove said the recent developments have changed Massey’s chairman job from a largely figurehead position into a more vital role, at least temporarily.

Historically, the chairman’s job has been a “meaningless position” that allowed the former CEOs of acquired banks to collect lucrative salaries and perks for a year or two before retiring, said Bove.

Bove thinks Massey was named to that position earlier this year to mollify shareholders who revolted earlier this year over Bank of America’s loss-plagued takeover of Merrill Lynch.

“They picked someone who would be relatively innocuous and wouldn’t shake the boat,” Bove said.

Massey was viewed as someone who “wouldn’t be any threat ... to what Ken Lewis wanted to do,” he said.

Still, now that Lewis has decided to depart at the end of the year, Massey is “the right guy for the job” to find his replacement, he added.