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Bank of America Corp.'s newest director, Chad Holliday Jr., will be in town next month to see another power player and friend, Duke Energy chief executive Jim Rogers.
The men, both with an outsized influence on Charlotte's future, will be on hand at the Charlotte Chamber's annual meeting on Nov. 16. Holliday will introduce Rogers when he receives the 2009 Citizen of the Carolinas award.
Holliday retired last year as CEO but remains chairman of DuPont, the Delaware-based company with a hand in a broad range of products including chemicals and electronics. In recent weeks, he has turned his attention to Bank of America.
He was named to its board of directors on Sept. 21, apparently the final addition in a renovation partly engineered by the government. He is also on the six-member board committee leading the search for the bank's new CEO, formed after Ken Lewis on Sept. 30 announced his plans to step down by year's end.
The bank's board is scheduled to hold a regular meeting today, but it's unclear whether any decisions about CEO succession will be made. Bank spokesman Bob Stickler declined to comment on the board's agenda.
Holliday, 61, and Rogers, 62, are "friends and longtime colleagues," according to the Charlotte Chamber. The two met when they joined the board of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University, which was formed in 2005, said DuPont spokeswoman Lori Captain.
They have also worked together at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Both companies were founding members three years ago for U.S. Climate Action Partnership, or USCAP, a coalition of businesses and other groups pushing for legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Chamber spokeswoman Erica Johnson said Rogers asked Holliday to introduce him. Rogers' Citizen of the Carolinas award will be presented at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Roberta Bowman, Duke Energy's chief sustainability officer, said both men share "a passion for the ability of business to help solve some of the world's greatest challenges." She has worked with Holliday on a number of task forces, including a group that helped with redevelopment after Hurricane Katrina.
Holliday, she said, has "a great sensitivity and sense of accountability for the role of business in society."
Separately, another new Bank of America board member, Bob Scully, spent just over $1 million last week to buy 62,000 shares in the bank. Scully, 59, retired earlier this year from New York-based Morgan Stanley. When he was appointed to the board in August, he generated buzz as someone likely to shake things up.
His purchase is likely meant to show his confidence in the bank's shares, and his efforts to align his own interests with those of the shareholders he represents. Of the six new board members appointed since June, Scully is the first to invest his own money in the bank since joining.
As of Tuesday evening, he had lost $83,000 on the investment.
Staff writer Rick Rothacker contributed.
