G. Kennedy Thompson

G. Kennedy Thompson is an American banker and businessman who was chairman, president, and CEO of Wachovia Corporation, Inc. formerly First Union Corporation, from 2000 through 2008. During his leadership, Wachovia grew to become the nation's fourth largest bank.

Career :

Starting in 1976, Thompson had a variety of positions at First Union, including manager of the New York loans office, senior vice president of human resources, vice president of Global Capital Markets, president of First Union-Florida, and president of First Union Georgia. In 2000, he became chairman, president, and CEO, replacing Edward E. Crutchfield who stepped down due to health reasons.

In September 2001, Thompson brokered the merger of First Union and Wachovia in September 2001. First Union changed its name to Wachovia after fending off a hostile takeover attempt by SunTrust Bank. He overhauled the ailing bank. In 2003, BusinessWeek named Thompson the Business Person of the Year. In 2006, under Thompson's leadership, Wachovia acquired Golden West Financial Corp. for approximately $26 billion, at the peak of the real estate market. In 2007, Thompson received a total compensation of $15,653,559, which included a base salary of $1,090,000, a cash bonus of $0, stocks granted of $12,351,369, and options granted of $1,925,933. 

However, Golden West mostly lent risky subprime loans. Thompson was pushed out of Wachovia on June 2, 2008, becoming one of many financial services executives who were ousted amid turmoil in the U.S. housing market. Thompson did not receive incentive pay for the 2008 fiscal year, but according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he received a severance of $1.45 million and accelerated vesting of $7.25 million in restricted stock. Thompson had served the company for 32 years.

Lanty Smith replaced Thompson as interim CEO of Wachovia. On July 10, 2008 Robert K. Steel, the former Treasury Undersecretary and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive, took over as CEO of Wachovia. However, Wachovia only survived for two more months before it was forced to merge with Wells Fargo.

In 2009, Thompson became a principal of Aquiline Capital Partners, a New York Equity firm.

In 2010, Wachovia settled out of court a case in which it allegedly laundered over $378 billion in cash and traveler's checks from Mexican drug cartels between 2004 and 2006, during Thompson's tenure as CEO. Terms of the settlement included a $110 million forfeiture and a $50 million fine