An unlikely candidate to be the guy who sold `The Bank'
Chad Gifford, son of a banker, raised and trained to be a banker, will instead go down in local business lore as the executive who sold Boston's last two big banks.
Those who know Gifford and the city's banking scene, however, said that harsh-sounding judgment doesn't do justice to the 60-year-old executive or to his 40-plus year career at the highest levels of Boston business circles. Instead, they describe an intelligent and unexpectedly warm executive who saw the cards he had been dealt at BankBoston and FleetBoston, and played them the only way he could.
He inherited the mantle as chief executive at Bank of Boston in 1995 after a bruising backroom battle with his predecessor, Ira Stepanian, only to sell the bank to cross-town rival Fleet Bank four years later. Then, after taking the helm of the combined FleetBoston Financial Corp. in 2002, Gifford yesterday cemented a $47 billion deal to sell that company to Bank of America Corp.
"Emotionally, who wants to be the guy who sold `The Bank' in New England?" Gifford asked. "No, that isn't something I was looking forward to."
Gifford is a survivor. Despite widespread sentiment in Boston business circles that Fleet chief executive Terrence Murray would never allow Gifford to run the bank, Gifford took over on schedule last year. This time Gifford emerges as chairman of the board at Bank of America.
But David D'Alessandro, chief executive at John Hancock Financial Services, which itself sold to an out-of-town company last month, said yesterday he has long admired Gifford for being willing to sacrifice for the sake of his firm.
"Years ago, when Chad and Murray were talking about a deal, before it was known around town, Chad did something I thought was remarkable," D'Alessandro said. "He said, `You know, in my best estimation, given what BankBoston's future looks like and despite the fact that a lot of people think I should slug it out, I have to do a deal like this. If it means I have to take the second position, I'm still going to do it.' "
D'Alessandro said he was reminded of that conversation when he heard about the Bank of America deal, because he said Gifford could have continued to run FleetBoston and remained a power player in town. Instead, D'Alessandro said, he made the right deal for his shareholders.
"That's a hard thing when he was already king," he said.
Gifford became king by following in his father's footsteps at the bank, spending almost his entire career inside Bank of Boston, later renamed BankBoston. Powerful and patrician, with deep New England roots, both the bank and the man carried blue-chip pedigrees in Boston.
Gifford became one of the city's most visible business leaders in his own right. He serves on the boards of a number of charitable and community groups and completed a recent three-year run as chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In 2000, during talks over a new contract for public school teachers, he helped bring the teachers and the City of Boston together. He played a central role in negotiating to keep the New England Patriots in Foxborough, and he advised Red Sox chief John Harrington in July 2000 when the team sought and won a legislative package to build a new stadium near Fenway Park.
But the description those who know Gifford repeatedly use when asked is that of an executive more considerate than most, and unusually attentive to friends and co-workers.
Former Bank of Boston spokeswoman Karen Schwartzman, who worked with Gifford for years and now runs Polaris Public Relations, calls herself "a definite Chad fan."
"I know executives who, the only way you can write to them is through a secretary, but that's not Chad," Schwartzman said. "Chad encouraged people to communicate with him, by responding to messages and e-mails on a very personal level. That suggests a level of emotional attachment to people that may not be usual in this world, in these times."
Robert Kraft, majority owner of the New England Patriots and chief executive of the Kraft Group of Cos., called Gifford an executive unlike anyone else he's ever met who runs a public company.
"He just knows when to put in a call to give you a lift," said Kraft, who sat front-and-center during the Fleet and Bank of America press conference yesterday, along with Boston advertising executive Jack Connors. "I feel tremendous kinship with him. We came from completely different backgrounds, but I feel like we're soul brothers."
Nancy Bush, an industry analyst who has known Gifford for years, said he was sometimes loyal to a fault with subordinates, leading to problems in some of the divisions he oversaw at BankBoston and Fleet. "Chad trusted people to tell him the truth and do their best, and they didn't always reward that trust," she said. "He was naive on some issues." In an interview last night, Gifford said he wasn't ready to look at his career in the past tense yet. Still, he said he is happy with how things have developed.
"I have had terrific opportunities and I'm proud of my career," he said. "I've made mistakes and I've made some good decisions. In the end, I think this deal, this decision, will go down as one of the best I've made yet."
Scott Bernard Nelson can be reached at nelson@globe.com. 