wfn.org | Pennsylvania Banking Executive Chosen to Head Foundation

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

28-October-1999 
99363 
 
    Pennsylvania Banking Executive Chosen to Head Foundation 
 
    New president/CEO has 30 years' experience in management 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation has named a 
Hershey, Pa., banking executive to lead one of organized religion's largest 
philanthropies into the next millennium. 
 
    Robert E. Leech, a financial-services executive with 30 years of 
management experience, was named as the foundation's new president and 
chief executive officer during an Oct. 22 meeting of the board of trustees. 
He succeeds Larry Carr, who left the post earlier this year to join his 
wife in Boston, Mass., and R. James Henderson, who served as interim 
president and CEO. 
 
    "Absolutely, looking forward to it," Leech said after being introduced 
during the meeting. "I'm honored and humbled to lead the foundation after 
200 years. It's truly an honor." 
 
    Leech, 54, is expected to assume his duties at the first of the year, 
although the denomination's General Assembly Council (GAC) must concur with 
Leech's appointment when it meets in February. The appointment must also be 
confirmed by the 212th General Assembly in Long Beach, Calif., next summer. 
 
    Foundation officials said Leech has a long track record of maximizing 
profits, growing assets, increasing productivity and providing top-quality 
customer service. Leech manages trust companies and banks and has 
particular expertise in investments and sales.  He prides himself on being 
an innovator who enjoys spearheading change. 
 
        "He clearly has the technical qualifications that we were looking 
for - the professional responsibilities, all the things he has done," said 
the Rev. Phil Young, a Foundation trustee and recently-retired executive 
for the Synod of the Pacific who headed the search team charged with 
finding Carr's successor. "He is also the kind of person who brings to this 
(position) a sense of ministry - a call. This is something we are delighted 
about." 
 
    Leech, a lifelong Presbyterian, joins the Foundation after serving 
eight years at Keystone Financial Inc. in Harrisburg, Pa., where he was 
president and CEO of the Asset Management Division of the $7 billion bank 
holding company. He was responsible for oversight of all asset-management 
activities including trust, investment management, brokerage, mutual funds 
and insurance. 
 
    Among his accomplishments at Keystone: acquiring and consolidating five 
trust departments into one organization; building a broker/dealer business 
with 35 brokers and 300 platform representatives; and establishing and 
chairing a $1.2 billion mutual fund group. 
 
    Leech said he's excited about joining an organization with such a long 
history. Since 1799, the Foundation has been serving the church and its 
mission through the cultivation and management of gifts and endowments. In 
the past five years, the Foundation, which manages assets exceeding $1.8 
billion, has distributed more than $350 million in support of Presbyterian 
mission and ministries. Leech said he expects a smooth transition from 
secular business world to a faith-based one. 
 
    "I don't know that it differs a whole lot," said Leech, who is also a 
certified financial planner and chartered financial analyst. "I think 
basically on the one side you're running a business and doing that by 
Christian principles. In this case you're working with a Christian 
organization which also needs to have business principles and abide by 
those. So I think there are differences in terms of style and so forth, but 
I believe the goals are the same." 
 
    Earlier, Leech served as executive vice president of First Trust in 
Saint Paul, Minn., the trust subsidiary of First Bank System, which has $25 
billion in managed assets and is ranked among the nation's top 25 trust 
organizations.  As the company's second-in-command from 1985 to 1990, he 
was responsible for personal trust and investment business in Minneapolis 
and St. Paul, Denver and Milwaukee. 
 
    During that time he implemented a revised structure in the investment 
management group to focus directly on the customer, resulting in a 60 
percent growth of managed assets.  In 1984 and 1985, Leech was president of 
First Bank of South Dakota, in Sioux Falls, where he was responsible for 
the $200 million institution and its 100 employees in three locations.  He 
was also senior vice president of the bank from 1981-1984. 
 
    In addition, Leech has held executive positions with Brenton Banks in 
Des Moines, Iowa, and Security Bank and Trust in Southgate, Mich.  Leech 
earned a bachelor's degree from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., and a 
masters of business administration from the College of William and Mary in 
Williamsburg, Va. 
 
    Young said Leech's credentials are impressive - and so is his 
management style. 
 
    "This is a guy with an open style, and a capacity to ask bright 
questions and listen carefully to the answers. ... (and) to deal as a human 
being with other human beings.  He will be a good leader for this staff in 
this time of transition." 
 
    Leech has served as a Presbyterian elder and deacon and on a number of 
pastor nominating committees.  "He's always looked to the church for ways 
to express his faith in Jesus Christ," Young said. 
 
    Leech, raised in suburban Philadelphia, has been married to his wife, 
Kathy, for 31 years. They have two daughters, Melanie, 24, and Tamara, 19. 
 
    "I guess I mostly look at the pluses," Leech said of his new job. "It's 
a great opportunity to get people interested in giving and development of 
mission and increasing the ability (of the church) to carry out its 
mission. I think it's a great opportunity for people to plan how to spread 
their wealth." 

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