Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> November 26, 2003
GERALD R. FRANCIS is Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief
Executive Officer of City Holding Company and City National Bank of West
Virginia, where he has served since January 2001. City Holding Company
was ranked the seventh top performing stock of 2002 by the 'Bloomberg
100' annual index of best performing stocks and was the only bank to
appear in the top 10 of this much-heralded annual list. Over the past
two years common shares of the company appreciated nearly four-fold, or
391%, making it the best stock value of all banks in the United States,
and the fourth best value of all American publicly-traded companies
during this time period. Before joining City, Mr. Francis was President
and director of Peoples Bank Corp. of Indianapolis from 1996 to 1999.
His accomplishments at Peoples led to the acquisition of that
organization by Fifth Third Bancorp in late 1999. The 4.32 times book
value premium was the highest ever received by an Indiana bank and
resulted in a nearly six-fold increase in Peoples' shareholder value
over the four-year period. Prior to his tenure at Peoples, he was a
Regional President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bank One,
Cincinnati, NA, from 1989 to 1995 and President of Metropolitan Bank,
Lima, Ohio from 1982 to 1989. While with Metropolitan Bank, Mr. Francis
engineered the turnaround of that seriously troubled institution into
one of the most profitable banks in the country before its merger with
Bank One Corporation. Mr. Francis earned his BA degree in Finance from
Wright State University and his MBA degree from the University of
Dayton. He was named '2002 Community Banker of the Year' by American
Banker in December 2002. Profile
a picture of what you're doing at the present time?
Mr. Francis: The bank was founded in 1957 here in West Virginia. It
