What bad economy?
Thomas K. Montag, the new head of global markets at Bank of America Corp., had a very good year in 2008 despite the worldwide downturn in the markets.
As reported in The New York Times, Montag was one of nearly 700 Merrill Lynch & Co. employees who collected bonuses of at least $1 million just before the company was sold to Bank of America.
Merrill later reported a $27 billion loss for 2008.
Quite likely, Montag was the leader in this privileged group of bonus recipients.
He had been brought to Merrill by John A. Thain, the company’s then-CEO and his former colleague at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
According to the terms of his May 1, 2008, compensation agreement with Merrill, Montag earned a bonus of $39.4 million for joining the brokerage firm.
But that may have been only half of the Merrill money that came Montag’s way in 2008, even though he worked for the company for just a few months, having started his job in Aug. 4 at an annual salary of $600,000. Upon the December sale of the firm, he went to Bank of America.
In addition to his Merrill bonus, Montag also received stock options and shares from Merrill that have been estimated to be worth at least $40 million.
These were granted to him as compensation for the Goldman equity he lost in joining Merrill.
Montag, 52, had worked at Goldman for 22 years before retiring at the end of 2007.
He spent seven years in Japan as the co-head of Goldman’s Asian efforts and was widely credited with turning that operation into a profit center, once tripling the company’s profits in a two-year period.
“Tom is extremely personable, extremely quick, very smart and good analytically,” a former Goldman colleague of his told Bloomberg News.
“Peers who were direct reports of his universally rave about him as a manager and a leader.”
Montag returned to the U.S. in 2006 and was Goldman’s global co-head of securities overseeing the Americas before retiring.
The New York Observer reported in February 2008 that Montag had purchased a six-story townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side.
Designed by Stanford White in 1903, the house was listed for $38 million. A source told the Observer that Montag had paid “well below” the asking price.
Making millions, Montag has given away millions, as well.
Bloomberg News reported that he donated $2 million to Beaverton High School in Portland, OR. Montag played football, basketball and baseball while a student at the school.
He also gave $1.4 million to Stanford for a stadium scoreboard and $2 million to Willamette University in Salem, OR, his parents’ alma mater.
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