🔒Executive Q&A: WooSox and Bank of America discuss culture building

Edwin Shea is the leader of the bank with the most local deposits in Central Massachusetts, wielding enormous influence over the wellbeing of the local economy. Dan Rea is the executive with the most direct day-to-day responsibility for the relocation of the minor league Pawtucket Red Sox into a new $132-million baseball stadium in the Canal district. In this new feature from WBJ, Shea and Rea interviewed each other on culture building, Worcester’s momentum and the renewed push for racial equality.

Shea: You seem to have the dream job, being in professional sports. How did that happen?

Rea: I was very lucky as a guy growing up playing baseball and hockey – I know you are a big hockey guy, Ed – but I did not have many talents on the field or the ice. I ended up getting a job with the Boston Red Sox when I was a freshman over at Harvard University. I worked with the Red Sox when I was in college; I was like the uncle you can’t get to leave the house after you invite him over once. Eventually, Larry Lucchino and Charles Steinberg got to know me, and I became Larry’s chief of staff after I graduated. When Larry bought the PawSox, he brought me down to Pawtucket, at first to be the general manager and now the EVP.

I’ve been very fortunate to have a Forest Gump-like existence where I bounce from spot to spot with good, smart people. I’m sure you see that over at BoA, with all the great people you have there. I’m curious, how does Bank of America look at culture building and how you get good people at different levels?

Shea: We’ve all had mentors throughout our careers and people we’ve looked up to. I’ve been with the bank 35 years now, as a legacy Bank of Boston employee. I had various people pull me out and give me opportunities. At our company, it is about earning your opportunities, based on your performance.

Brian Moynihan is a great leader for our company and was just named CEO of The Year by Chief Executive magazine, which we are all proud of. He gives credit to the 210,000 employees, who are all marching in the same line. We all understand what the purpose is: to make the financial lives better for our clients.

To be in a company like Bank of America that is global, it presents opportunities to you, like if you want to move elsewhere in the country. One of the things we do in Worcester is identify career opportunities for those folks who don’t want to leave Worcester, because they love the community. One of my jobs as market president is to focus on that career development and making this a place where they want to stay.

Shea: Our success if driven by the success of our communities. That is what you all are doing in Worcester, the excitement centered around the Red Sox coming to Worcester. How has that been, and what do you see the impact of the development of the Canal District as having on the lives of Worcester folks?

Rea: When we first started looking at ballpark locations, we had 18 or 19 different cities from around New England reach out to us. We looked at it in very granular detail, and Worcester kept rising to the top, as a community with a sense of momentum over the last five or 10 years. We said to ourselves, “That is a community we want to be a part of.” We didn’t want to create the wave ourselves with the ballpark. Frankly, there have been teams that have tried to do that, and it is a tough road to hoe. When you can be part of an existing wave, that is when a project like ours can add to the momentum.

We are a bit sobered by the fact the world looks different than it did six months ago. We had a seven-week delay in the construction of the stadium, which has been tough. We’ve dealt with it the best we’ve can, and now we have crews working double shifts at the stadium site. But we are optimistic people still want to work, live and play in Worcester. How does Bank of America feel about the momentum in Worcester?

Shea: Everybody is hanging their hat on a vaccine to put a lot of the coronavirus pandemic behind us. Right now, there are a lot of folks out there who are really hurting. There are businesses that won’t reopen, which is sad. We still have to get through this, and the secret is a vaccine. We are working to bridge the gap between now and when it is safe to return.

We want to really be out in front of our clients to see what their needs are. We want to know how their businesses are doing. We have our client assistance programs. We’ve now had 1.4 million clients request a payment deferral, and it is now up to $28 billion in deferrals.

Shea: One of the other things front and center right now is the racial inequality issues and everything that has happened since the George Floyd killing. How is that impacting you? Are you able to have discussions about social injustice?

Rea: Over the past two months, we have had some pretty extensive discussions internally, and we are starting to have them externally. Knowing a baseball team, like a major bank, has a platform and almost has an obligation to say something and not be silent.

For us, we’ve tried to listen, too. From my own personal background, I can’t speak to the experience some other people have had. So we want to talk to some people in our network who have had those experiences. For example, Tommy Harper, a great Red Sox player, faced racial injustices as he was coming up through the minor leagues and the major leagues, and he can talk incredibly eloquently about what he faced, the issues we all are still facing, and what we need to do going forward.

We’ve also worked to come up with some steps we can take. The WooSox Foundation we are going to get up and running will be a big mechanism for that. We can put some action items in place. It is one thing to talk a good game, but it is another to actually do some things to address these issues.

I noticed an article about Bank of America, where you are committing to economic empowerment, which is at the root of a lot of these issues. What is that about?

Shea: We announced a $1-billion commitment over the next four years to address racial equality. This whole topic can be challenging, nerve-racking and uncomfortable for folks, and we have programs internally where we are having courageous conversations around these topics. We all have biases, whether they are known or are unconscious biases. The other day we had a conversation about walking in someone else’s shoes. It is listening like you said, and then understanding the perspectives of others. It all needs to start with those conversations, and being courageous enough to bring up difficult topics.

This issue is not going to go away. It is here, and it is time to address it.

This interview was edited for length and clarity by WBJ Editor Brad Kane.