Charles K. Gifford is an American banker and businessman. He is the chairman emeritus of

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

, having served on its board of directors from 2004 to 2016.

Early life and education

Gifford was born on November 8, 1942, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. His father was a successful banking executive, and his mother was a homemaker. Through his mother, Gifford is a descendant of the John Brown and the Brown family. Gifford, his parents, and three siblings were passengers in the first-class cabin on the SS ''Andrea Doria'' when it collided with the Swedish liner MS ''Stockholm'' and sank off Nantucket in 1956. The Giffords survived the accident, which claimed 46 lives. Gifford earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

in history from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1964.

Career

After graduating from college in 1964, he began his banking career in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

working at Chase Manhattan until 1966 before joining

Bank of Boston A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

. At Bank of Boston, Gifford worked in commercial lending, first as a loan officer in 1967, then in various vice president positions. From 1975 to 1977 he headed corporate lending at the

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, office. In Boston he became the executive of the Corporate Banking Group in 1984. After two years as vice chairman, the company promoted him to president in 1989, with Ira Stepanian as chief executive officer. When Stepanian resigned in July, 1995, the board promoted Gifford as his successor. He became CEO of

FleetBoston Financial FleetBoston Financial was a Boston, Massachusetts-based bank created in 1999 by the merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston. In 2004 it merged with Bank of America; all of its banks and branches were converted to Bank of America. Histor ...

in December 2002. Gifford served as chairman of

from 2004 to 2005, when the company acquired FleetBoston, and he served as a board member until 2016. Gifford has also made several contributions to

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

politicians and candidates, including

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

Joe Kennedy III Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American lawyer, politician and diplomat who currently serves as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland since 2022. Prior to this, Kennedy served as the U.S. representative for f ...

, Alan Khazei,

Claire McCaskill Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019 and as State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007. McCaskill is a native of Rolla, Missouri. She g ...

, Bill Keating, Andrei Cherny,

Barney Frank Barnett Frank (born March 31, 1940) is a former American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts from 1981 to 2013. A Democrat, Frank served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committ ...

, and Angus King.

Service on boards of directors

He has served on the following boards: *

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and ...

, Director, 2006–2018 *

Dana–Farber Cancer Institute Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is a comprehensive cancer treatment and research institution in Boston, Massachusetts. Dana–Farber is the founding member of Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Harvard's Comprehensive Cancer Center designated by ...

, Director * Northeastern University, Trustee * NSTAR LLC, Presiding Trustee, 1999–present

Personal life

Gifford married Anne Dewing in 1964. They have four children, including financier and diplomat Rufus Gifford.

References

Living people Directors of Bank of America American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives of financial services companies 1942 births Shipwreck survivors {{US-CEO-stub