Good Morning Everyone:

Yesterday, Ken Lewis, one of the titans of Capitalism and the financial services industry, announced his retirement. I am in awe of all that he accomplished during his long career with Bank of America. He leaves his company and Charlotte in a much stronger position to face the future.

Acquisitions and growth under his leadership now place Bank of America as a nationwide market share leader in consumer retail banking, corporate and investment banking and brokerage, credit card lending and residential mortgage lending. Mr. Lewis is known as hands-on, detailed oriented executive. He helped his company grow into many different businesses, each with focused leadership needs of their own. Perhaps it is now time for a more decentralized approach. Now is the time to let these businesses and their people flourish in their respective environments, and now is the time to let them be held accountable for their performance.

In fact, decentralization is the direction Lewis is heading as witnessed by the recent appointments he has made to run his various businesses.  Many of these business heads are located in places other than Charlotte. As Charlotteans we should not worry too much about where the future leader of Bank of America resides. Charlotte is the sphere of influence of the Bank’s retail headquarters just as Wall Street is the sphere of influence for investment banking. Bank of America is home grown and its legacy benefits us all.

Click here to see a September 21 Wall Street Journal editorial calling Mr. Lewis the Banking Scapegoat of America. And, as Gary Shilling puts it, “When a lot of people lose a lot of money, there is a cosmic need for scapegoats and increased regulation.” The point of the editorial is that maybe we should thank Mr. Lewis for coming to the rescue back in December when he moved forward with the decision to purchase Merrill Lynch at time when all of the financial industry was on the precipice of collapse.

Last week I wrote to Mr. Lewis to thank him for all that he has accomplished (and to invite him to the Helen Adams’ 2010 Residential Real Estate Forecast Event!). For those of you who have a desire to write and thank Mr. Lewis for all of his accomplishments I have attached his address below:

Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis

CEO & President

Bank of America Corporate Center

101 N. Tryon Street

Charlotte, NC 28255

I hope to see all our agents, their guests and our staff on Wed. October, 14 for our 2010 Charlotte Residential Real Estate Forecast Event!