Adelizzi Is Named CEO at HomeFed

HomeFed Corp. President Robert F. Adelizzi has been named chief executive of the savings-and-loan holding company, taking over day-to-day management from Kim Fletcher, who will remain board chairman.

Adelizzi joined HomeFed, the parent of HomeFed Bank, in 1962, and has been its president since 1981. He is also a board director. Adelizzi, 54, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of San Diego School of Law.

In an interview, Fletcher said his primary reason for vacating the chief executive’s job at the $18-billion thrift is to give Adelizzi the opportunity to “move up and assume more responsibility and be rewarded in title at the same time.”

“Bob has done an outstanding job as president and chief operating officer,” Fletcher said. “We have worked together as a team for over 20 years, and it’s only right that he be given the recognition.”

Fletcher, 62, said HomeFed has no mandatory retirement age and age was not a factor in his decision to step down. He will remain on certain of HomeFed’s board committees and keep an office at the S&L.; Fletcher, a yachtsman, also said he expects to devote more time to his work on the America’s Cup organizing committee.

Fletcher has been HomeFed chairman since 1979 and chief executive since 1969 and owns about 1.7% of outstanding HomeFed shares.

HomeFed has been strongly identified with the Fletcher family ever since Charles K. Fletcher, Kim’s father, founded Home Federal Savings & Loan in 1934. The elder Fletcher retired as chairman in 1963 and died in 1986. The S&L; changed to its name last year.

But Kim Fletcher said his family’s involvement in HomeFed management will end with him, as none of his children plans to make a career at the S&L.;