L.M. "Bud" Baker completes planned retirement as Wachovia head

Wachovia chairman L.M. "Bud" Baker Jr. announced his retirement Tuesday, as the bank's merger with First Union nears completion. Ken Thompson, the former First Union head who has been serving as president and chief executive officer of the merged Wachovia, was elected by the bank's board to succeed Baker as its chairman. Baker, 60, had said at the time of the banks' 2001 merger that he would stay on long enough to see the combination to completion. His retirement is immediate, Wachovia said in a statement. "It has been a supreme honor to work with the people of Wachovia and most recently it has been exciting and rewarding to be part of the merger integration, which has been flawless," Baker said in the release. "I believe this will set the standard by which other combinations will be judged." Baker, a native of Lovettsville, Va., and graduate of the University of Richmond, succeeded John Medlin as head of Winston-Salem-based Wachovia in 1993 and led the bank into a merger agreement with First Union in 2001. Atlanta-based SunTrust countered with an unsolicited competing bid, kicking off a contentious takeover battle that lasted the entire summer and ended with First Union victorious. During the merger battle, there was controversy over the terms of Baker's retirement package, which guaranteed him $2 million a year for life plus $200,000 a year in expenses if the deal with First Union went through. Baker agreed to give up that provision to help smooth passage of the merger. The combined bank, based in Charlotte and bearing the Wachovia name, is the fourth-largest in the country. Baker has served as a member of the operating committee, but Thompson has overseen day-to-day operations since the merger was completed in September 2001.