Bank of America Corp. has consolidated its premier banking operations in California and placed Orange- based Kim Burdick in charge of the unit.
Burdick will oversee 450 employees and 200,000 accounts that have balances of at least $100,000. The premier banking division is the fastest-growing segment of the bank, acccording to Burdick. The division holds $14 billion in deposits and $15 billion in assets, Burdick said.
Burdick has headed the bank’s premier banking division for Southern California since 1998.
Liam McGee, the bank’s president for its California operations, said while the county is one of the bank’s fastest-growing regions, he brought the division to OC for a different reason.
“It wasn’t about location,” McGee said. “Kim was the best person to run it. It made all the sense in the world. (He) has my own style.”
Burdick acknowledged their similarities, but joked, “I am taller.” Joking aside, Burdick said, “I copied from his example.”
Burdick started with Bank of America in 1980 as a management trainee. He moved up the ladder to head the bank’s California grocery store banking network and was involved with evaluating other non-traditional bank products.
Previously, the bank divided its premier banking in California, with one executive in San Francisco handling the Northern California operations and Burdick running the Southern California operations out of Newport Beach.
The consolidation of the premier banking division in OC is part of a larger consolidation of all of Bank of America’s operations in California. The effort started with the appointment of Los Angeles-based McGee as president of Bank of America for California a few months back.
The reorganization of management following Bank of America’s 1998 merger with Nation’s Bank was a precursor to the bank’s layoff of 10,000 employees nationwide in a post-merger consolidation. n
