Kemper Allays Fears, Says He Is at Great American Helm to Stay
Insisting that his plans are not merely to stay “a month or two” at his new job and then move on, Great American Bank’s new chairman and chief executive Robert L. Kemper said that his goal is to “help (the S&L;) survive” and to “run the institution long enough to retire.”
Kemper’s comments were made during a brief interview Tuesday, his second day on the job after replacing Gordon Luce at Great American’s helm. Kemper’s statements may have allayed fears of some observers who may have suspected that he was brought in to manage Great American at the invitation of the Office of Thrift Supervision as a prelude to shutting down the still solvent-but-ailing institution.
Great American needs to raise $350 million in capital or drastically shrink itself in asset size by the end of this year or risk being seized by regulators, according to a capital plan submitted to the OTS in April. The OTS has taken a strong supervisory role at the S&L; in recent months.
Kemper’s background certainly could qualify him for a caretaker role. A 61-year-old former vice chairman of Wells Fargo Bank who quit after losing the chairman’s job to Carl Reichardt, Kemper has for the last two years worked for a San Francisco-based financial services consulting firm, Conover & McNamar, that works closely with the OTS and which recently studied the possibility of organizing an investment group to acquire several failed thrifts.
During two years as director of National Center on Financial Services at UC-Berkeley, Kemper led seminars and courses that focused strongly on regulatory issues and, in the process, became well known to regulatory staff members.
Nonetheless, Kemper said he is making a long-term commitment to make Great American a “viable institution.” That’s a daunting task, one that caused at least three other candidates for the Luce job to beg off after being approached by Great American’s board of directors, sources said.
Kemper now lives in Santa Barbara but plans to move to San Diego soon, he said.
Kemper declined to discuss specific financial issues confronting Great American, a reticence that may be connected to Great American’s efforts to sell all or most of its California branches, a move designed to raise the S&L;’s deficient capital to levels acceptable to regulators.
A deal to sell many of its branches could be imminent with Wells Fargo or Bank of America mentioned by sources as the most likely buyers. A joint venture of Security Pacific Bank and the Robert Bass Group made a bid for some Great American branches last month but was turned down, sources said.
The sale of the branches could leave Great American considerably shrunken from its current $15.4-billion assets size, sources said.
Gordon Luce, whom Kemper replaced as chairman and chief executive, will remain as a member of Great American’s board of directors. But the status of Roger Lindland, whom Kemper replaced as president, was less clear Tuesday. The S&L; said Lindland is no longer an employee but declined to say whether Lindland resigned or was fired.
Great American also declined to say whether Lindland will collect a “golden parachute” severance payment from the the S&L.;
Kemper also declined to discuss his compensation package at Great American and whether it includes Great American stock or options to buy shares. Such a compensation feature typically gives executives incentives to stay with a troubled company and would be proof of Kemper’s long-term resolve.
Great American also confirmed Tuesday that it has accelerated its payroll reduction program and that it eliminated 183 jobs--a 6% reduction--in April and May through a combination of layoffs, retirements and resignations, leaving Great American’s employee count at 3,206 at the end of May.
