Out of public view, succession planning is a key issue at three pivotal Tar Heel companies.
North Carolina’s corporate leadership may see major changes this year, with three veteran
CEOs of the five largest public companies at or near the traditional tipping point of age 65.
Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, Lynn Good of Duke Energy and William “Bill” Rogers of Truist haven’t signaled their intentions. But their departures wouldn’t be surprising to close observers.
To be sure, CEOs are staying longer than ever. More than 40% of the CEOs at companies comprising the S&P 500 Index of major companies are 60 or older, an all-time high, according to the Conference Board and the ESGauge research firm.
“It used to be that the prime CEO years were 45 to 55, but now CEOs are asking boards if they could stay longer,” says Richard Leblanc, a corporate governance expert who teaches at Canada’s York University. “If you have a performing CEO, there’s no reason to change, simply for change’s sake.”
Longer stays reflect the vigor of many CEOs, board members’ preference for battle-tested leaders and sharp increases in the level of CEO pay, which raises both net worths and pressure. With many CEOs in their mid- and late-60s, however, some experts expect a “cliff” of retirements looming on the horizon.
CEO succession is a key issue for any corporate board, but rarely discussed publicly. When companies are operating successfully, the odds are high that an internal candidate will gain the top spot. Nearly 60% of CEOs in the Russell 3000 index were hired from within.
In the financial sector, nearly 90% of CEOs moved up within the organization, a Conference Board report notes.
Here is some of the speculation circling the three large N.C.-based companies.
Truist: Rebuilding after a challenging merger
Bill Rogers, CEO
At Truist, CEO Bill Rogers, 65, has faced significant hurdles since taking the helm in 2021 from Kelly King, two years following the 2019 merger of BB&T and SunTrust. Investors have been largely unimpressed by the merger, with Truist shares underperforming the industry indices while reporting lesser profits than expected.
After a major realignment of its leadership team, Rogers told analysts in November that “we are on offense” with third-quarter earnings gaining 24%. Rodgers assured shareholders there was no “merger hangover.”
Rogers had served as chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based SunTrust since 2011, after joining the company in 1980. He is a born-and-bred Tar Heel with a bachelor’s degree from UNC Chapel Hill.
Three executives appear well-positioned to succeed Rogers.
Hugh “Beau” Cummins, Truist’s vice chair and chief operating officer, has worked closely with Rogers since joining SunTrust in 2005. He spent most of his career in the company’s capital markets and wholesale banking operations, becoming vice chair in 2021 and COO in 2023. Cummins, who has an MBA from the University of Michigan, earned the second-largest compensation at Truist in 2023, with a package valued at $6.1 million. Two years earlier, he had received total compensation of $11.7 million, including $7.78 million in stock awards. Truist shares have have declined 20% over the past five years. Cummins is in his early 60s, which may be too close to Rogers’ age and work against his chance to become CEO.
Kristin Lesher, Truist’s chief wholesale banking officer, would reflect the board’s desire for change. She joined the company last February from much larger Wells Fargo. After earning an MBA at Northwestern University in 2000, she joined Charlotte-based Wachovia, which Wells Fargo acquired during the 2008 financial crisis. After many years in investment banking, she was promoted to key commercial banking posts starting in 2018. She’s spent most of her career based in Washington, D.C. Now at Truist, she’s overseeing corporate and investment banking, commercial banking, commercial real estate, and wealth management. Truist’s merger struggles make it more likely the board would promote a relative outsider to the CEO post.
Dontá Wilson was named chief consumer and small business banking officer in November 2023, when Cummins was promoted to COO and Lesher’s hiring was disclosed. Wilson is a close confidant of Rogers and an esteemed Charlotte civic leader. His post includes oversight of more than 2,000 community banking branches in 17 states and the District of Columbia, along with digital banking, core deposit and loan products, consumer finance and innovation. The units make up 60% of Truist revenue. Wilson, 48, started working for predecessor BB&T as a UNC Charlotte student in the mid-1990s. He has worked for the bank in several states and was named to the executive management team in 2016.
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Duke Energy: Navigating a transition
Lynn Good, CEO
Lynn Good is completing her 11th year as CEO of Duke Energy, the third-largest U.S. electric utility based on market value. A former Arthur Andersen CPA who joined predecessor company Cinergy in Cincinnati in 2003, Good has led the company to record profits while steering toward a more green future. It’s been “a complex undertaking that involves short-term planning and long-term advances in technology,” Hannah Bates wrote in a Harvard Business Review story.
Like many peers, Duke Energy is shifting from its once-heavy reliance on coal-fired production plants to more natural gas and alternative energy sources. The utility benefits as the second-largest nuclear operator among U.S. utilities.
Good is also a director of Boeing, which is facing unprecedented challenges. She’s active in the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council, a CEO group. Good’s total annual compensation has averaged more than $19 million over the past three years, which is nearly four times as much as any other Duke Energy executive during that period.
Should Good step down, two internal candidates get the most buzz as likely successors.
Harry Sideris was named president in April, a title Good previously held. He has a chemical engineering degree from NC State University and an MBA from Campbell University. He joined Duke in 1996. His previous roles at the company include executive vice president of customer experience, solutions and services; state president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in Florida; and senior vice president of environmental health and safety. “The rule has long been, ‘grow your own’ internally, especially at a company of that size and complexity,” says Ralph Ward, editor of the Corporate Insider newsletter.
Brian Savoy, chief financial officer, is another longterm Duke executive, having joined the company in 2001 as a manager in its energy trading unit. Before taking his current post in 2022, he was chief strategy and commercial officer. His total compensation in 2023 was $3.48 million, the lowest of the six most highly compensated officials. That doesn’t always correlate with succession. “When you hear about executive pay plans, take it with a grain of salt,” Ward says. “There are a lot of different pay structures involved.”
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Bank of America: Stability after the storm
Brian Moynihan, CEO
Brian Moynihan, 65, has had a remarkable run since bank directors picked him in 2010 to succeed Ken Lewis as CEO. His selection came amid a closely watched succession battle following BofA’s controversial purchases of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial. The hiring of the Boston-based CEO confirmed the dominance of board members less connected to Charlotte, where predecessors Lewis and Hugh McColl Jr. built the financial powerhouse. Moynihan focused on reducing risk, expense controls, rebuilding capital and methodically improving the bank’s core businesses of retail banking, capital markets and wealth management. His work has won consistent plaudits from Wall Street investors and Warren Buffett, who remains BofA’s largest shareholder even after hefty sales over the past year.
Moynihan, whose annual compensation has averaged $27 million over the past three years, is in no rush to depart. But his nearly 15-year tenure is increasingly unusual among leading U.S. CEOs, and the demands of a $2 trillion bank never get easier.
Succession buzz centers on three leading candidates, each of whom is in their mid- or
late-50s.
Dean Athanasia is president of regional banking, which has been BofA’s traditional core business. A graduate of Yale University with a Wharton School MBA, he joined BofA predecessor Fleet Boston in 1996 after working for JPMorgan in corporate lending and strategy jobs. After BofA bought Fleet Boston in 2004, he gained increasingly key roles in the wealth and investment management unit, then became president for consumer and small business banking. He oversees four of the company’s eight major lines of business, and has helped sustain BofA’s leadership in retail banking and small business and commercial lending. He’s long been among the bank’s highest-paid executives, receiving average compensation of about $14.6 million over the past three years.
Alastair Borthwick became the bank’s chief financial officer in 2021 after previously heading global commercial banking for nine years. He previously was co-head of global capital markets. He joined the company in 2005 after working for Goldman Sachs for a dozen years. He received an undergraduate degree at the University of St. Andrews in his native Scotland, then a Dartmouth MBA. He has earned annual compensation of about $11 million in recent years.
James DeMare is president of global markets at BofA, and has more than 25 years of financial services industry experience. Prior to joining Bank of America in 2008, he held various management and senior trading positions in fixed income at Citigroup, Salomon Brothers and Bear Stearns. Reflecting the higher pay typical for capital markets executives, DeMare has received more compensation over the past three years — averaging about $18.7 million annually — than any named executive other than Moynihan. ■
