Ken Lewis Ousted as Bank of America Chairman (But He's Still CEO)

Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet at 4:40 PM on April 29, 2009.

The good news? Ken Lewis has been ousted as chairman of Bank of America Corp. The bad news? He's still BoA's CEO. The AP reports:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ken Lewis was ousted as chairman of Bank of America Corp. Wednesday after shareholders angry about the company's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. voted to separate the job from that of chief executive.

Lewis will remain the CEO of the bank, but board member Walter E. Massey, the president emeritus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, will become BofA's chairman.

Shareholders narrowly voted at the bank's annual meeting Wednesday to split the jobs following months of rancor over the Merrill Lynch acquisition. After the deal was sealed Jan. 1, Merrill Lynch reported $15 billion in fourth-quarter losses and it was learned that Bank of America had approved the early payout of billions of dollars in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees.

Lewis, who was chairman and CEO since 2001, has spent much of this year defending his actions _ and did so again during the angry four-hour meeting.

Results of the voting were delayed for several hours, and Bank of America issued a statement that the board of directors had met Wednesday, elected Massey as chairman and unanimously voted to keep Lewis as CEO.

Read the whole article here.

Though this is a step in the right direction, it is a far cry from what Bank of America really needs to do: fire Ken Lews from the position of CEO. Click here to learn more about how to stand up to Ken Lewis and Bank of America's corporate greed.

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