Orange County native Allen Staff is the new local market president for Bank of America Corp.
Staff, who attended University High School in Irvine, replaces Greg Mech, who retired late last year as market president.
Staff has been with the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank for 25 years. He currently serves as regional executive of commercial real estate banking, where he manages a multibillion dollar portfolio.
He will retain that position along with his new duties.
Staff has spent the past several years as a member of the bank’s OC leadership group, which regularly meets with the market president on business goals and initiatives across the bank’s dozen or so lines of business.
“Now I have the opportunity to be market president, leading all those various lines of business,” Staff said.
He said his top priorities are integrating businesses to better serve customers, enhancing community initiatives and improving the bank’s local marketing.
BofA has local operations in commercial and corporate banking, wealth management, consumer banking and credit cards, among others.
Its wealth management division has been buoyed by the 2009 acquisition of Merrill Lynch and has about $25 billion under management in OC, believed to be the highest here.
The bank employs 6,500 people in the county.
BofA’s community initiatives include charitable giving, environmental and diversity efforts, and coordinating employee volunteering.
This year BofA plans to earmark more than $2 million for local philanthropic initiatives, Staff said. In 2010, employees volunteered more than 2,700 hours.
Changing Perceptions
BofA and other large banks still have some work to do to change perceptions about the industry, which took a beating in the financial crisis, Staff said.
“We can do a much better job of that,” he said. “You’ve got some legacy issues to deal with. But we’re also transitioning into a new and better environment. It’s not going to be as fast as we all want it, but we’re getting there.”
