G. Kennedy Thompson is one of the most popular and richest Businessperson who was born on November 25, 1950 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States. Lanty Smith was replaced by Thompson as interim chief executive officer. On the 10th of July, 2008 Robert K. Steel, the former Treasury Undersecretary as well as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive, was appointed the chief executive officer of Wachovia Corporation. But, Wachovia did not last for more than two months more before it was forced into a merger together with Wells Fargo.
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 in the years 2004 – 2006, during Thompson’s tenure as CEO. Terms of the settlement included a $110 million forfeiture and a $50 million fine.
Thompson serves on the Boards of Directors Florida Rock Industries, Inc., (NYSE) and Atrium Health. Professional affiliations include Board member, Financial Services Roundtable; vice chairman and board member, New York Clearing House; member, Financial Services Forum, The Business Council. Following his very narrow re-election with 55% of the shareholder vote, it was announced in April 2013 that Thompson would step down from the Hewlett-Packard (HP) board.
When he was the Chief Executive Officer at Wachovia in 2007 G. Kennedy Thompson received an overall compensation of $15,653,559 including an annual base salary of $1090,000 and a cash bonus of zero, stock grants at $12,351,369 as well as options granted for $1,925,933.
Under Thompson’s direction, Wachovia bought GoldenWest for around $26 billion. This was at the top of the real property market.
Thompson was pushed out of Wachovia Bank (WB) on June 2, 2008, as head of the nation’s fourth-largest bank, becoming the latest financial services executive to be ousted amid turmoil in the U.S. housing market. Thompson will not receive any incentive pay for the 2008 fiscal year, but according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he will get a severance of $1.45 million and accelerated vesting of $7.25 million in restricted stock. Thompson had served the company for 32 years.
