Charles J Thayer
Charles J. Thayer is Chairman and Managing Director of Chartwell Capital Ltd., a private investment firm providing specialized advisory services to the board of directors and executive management of banks, corporations and institutional investors. (Download PDF)
He was named Chairman of the American Association of Bank Directors in 2007. The AABD is the national non-profit organization dedicated to serving the information, education and advocacy needs of financial institution directors. Outside directors who are not professional bankers make up 95% of AABD membership.
The National Association of Corporate Directors invited Thayer to be a founding board member of NACD Florida. The NACD is the premier source of corporate governance information, education and training for directors and CEOs who are committed to raising standards and improving boardroom performance. Thayer has been awarded the Certificate of Director Education by the NACD Corporate Directors Institute.
Republic Bank , one of Florida's largest independent commercial banks, elected Thayer to the Board of Directors in October 1999 and to the Board of Republic Bancshares, Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida (NASDAQ) in May 2000. Republic was acquired by BB&T Corporation in 2004 and Thayer served on the board of BB&T Bank (Florida) until July 2006.
The Louisville Community Development Bank in named Thayer to its Board in 1997. LCDB's shareholders include Kentucky's major banks and corporations and the bank is dedicated to job creation and home ownership in the Louisville metro area.
Thayer was elected to the Board of Trustees of the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Washington, DC., in 1980. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Foundation and Chairman of the Foundation's investment committee. He served as Chairman of Cystic Fibrosis Services, Inc., the Foundation's national mail order pharmacy, from 1994 to 2004.
He served as an advisor to Keefe Managers, Inc., New York, from 1989 until 2002. Keefe Managers was founded by Harry V. Keefe (1922-2002) in 1989 to serve as the investment advisor for Keefe Partners L.P., an investment partnership for bank and thrift securities.
Thayer was elected to the Board of Directors of CogenAmerica (NASDAQ), an independent power producer headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April 1996. He served as a member of the Independent Directors Committee (IDC) until CogenAmerica's acquisition by Calpine Corporation (NYSE) in December 1999. The IDC was given full control of the acquisition process.
He served on the Board of Directors of Sunbeam Corporation (NYSE) from October 1990 until his resignation in April 1997. In January 1993 he was elected Chairman and CEO of Sunbeam, providing interim management until the election of a new CEO in August 1993. Thayer was described as Sunbeam's "most knowledgeable director" in the book "Chainsaw" by John A. Byrne, Executive Editor of Business Week.
Thayer had a twenty year career in commercial banking prior to organizing Chartwell Capital in 1990. As Executive Vice President of PNC Financial (NYSE), Pittsburgh, he had management responsibility for finance, merger and acquisitions, investor relations, strategic planning, and served as Chairman of PNC Securities Corp, PNC's capital markets subsidiary. At that time, PNC was ranked as the 12th largest bank in the United States and ranked 4th in market capitalization, 1st in return on equity and 1st in return on assets among the nation's top 15 banks.
Prior to its acquisition by PNC in 1986, Thayer served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Citizens Fidelity Corporation (NASDAQ), Kentucky's largest bank holding company. As Chief Financial Officer he negotiated separate private placements of common stock, convertible debentures and senior notes with both European and Japanese investors. Citizens Fidelity was one of less than twenty banks rated "A" [the highest rating] by Keefe (Thomson) BankWatch.