Bank of America has appointed Gregory Curl as Chief Risk Officer for working with the company’s lines of business to identify and navigate credit, market and operational risks. He will succeed Amy Woods Brinkley with effect from June 30, following a transition period.
Mr. Curl held several roles in corporate development since 1997, and most recently has been Global Corporate Strategic Development and Planning executive. He will continue to be a member of the Management Committee.
Christopher Whalen, Managing Director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a Torrance, California-based research firm, said: “It’s absolutely wrong to bring an M&A guy over the wall into a risk manager position because it takes a totally different skill set. It’s more bizarre behavior out of Bank of America.”
However, Robert Stickler, bank spokesman said: “Mr. Lewis and Ms. Brinkley mutually decided that we needed a different approach to our risk management and it was a good time to change leadership. Greg Curl’s mandate is to change our credit-writing process to reflect the quite different environment that we’ve been in and we are going into.”
Kenneth Lewis, CEO and President of BofA, said: “Curl will bring a valuable perspective to risk management based on his years of analyzing companies and markets for corporate development. He has that natural ability to look at things, see both the upside and the potential pitfalls and then navigate the right course.”
