Wachovia Corp. has selected Robert K. Steel, undersecretary for domestic finance in the Department of the Treasury, as its new president and chief executive.
The hiring of Mr. Steel concludes a six-week search that started in June after the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm’s board of directors asked G. Kennedy Thomson to leave in the wake of write-downs, bad acquisitions and weak financial results.
Prior to his work for the government, Mr. Steel spent 28 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of New York.
He retired as a vice chairman of the New York-based firm in February 2004.
Mr. Steel inherits the reins of the nation's fourth largest bank, which yesterday announced that it would report a second-quarter loss ranging between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion July 22.
Prior to Mr. Thomson's departure, the company posted a $708 million loss in the first quarter, stemming predominantly from write-downs.
Mr. Thomson was criticized for bank's $24.2 billion purchase in October 2006 of Golden West Financial Corp., an Oakland, Calif.-based mortgage specialist and savings and loan.
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