First Union alum to leave CommunityOne board

Long-time First Union executive Louis A. "Jerry" Schmitt is stepping down from CommunityOne Bancorp's board of directors, the Charlotte bank said Friday.

Schmitt, 73, was executive vice president and co-head of First Union's capital markets division in the mid-1990s. His co-head? Ken Thompson, who later became CEO of First Union and then Wachovia after the Charlotte bank bought it.

He had served on CommunityOne's board since it was saved from the brink of failure in a $310 million recapitalization in 2011. That's also when Brian Simpson and Bob Reid were brought in as CEO and president, respectively. Both Simpson and Reid were executives at First Union and later Wachovia.

The announcement from CommunityOne points out that Schmitt's retirement was not because of a disagreement with the bank.

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