William Mulholland, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of Montreal and the man who led its expansion into the United States and into the brokerage industry, has died. He was 81.
Mr. Mulholland died on Saturday at his home in Georgetown, Ont., northwest of Toronto.
The Albany, N.Y.-born former U.S. Army soldier, who fought in the Philippines during the Second World War, joined Bank of Montreal in 1975 as president after a stint as a Wall Street investment banker. On Wall Street, he spearheaded the financing of the Churchill Falls power project in Labrador.
At Bank of Montreal, he led the acquisition in 1984 of Harris Bankcorp Inc. of Chicago, a unit the Toronto bank has since used to expand its footprint in the key U.S. Midwestern market.
Mr. Mulholland also helped negotiate the acquisition of Nesbitt Thomson Inc. in 1987, the first bank takeover of a Bay Street brokerage, after the federal government eased the barriers that had separated banks, trust companies, insurers and brokers in Canada.
Nesbitt Thomson's successor company, BMO Nesbitt Burns, is the cornerstone of the bank's capital markets strategy today and one of the bank's most profitable divisions.
"Bill Mulholland was CEO of the bank during a turbulent decade," said Bill Downe, current president and CEO, who joined the bank when Mr. Mulholland was CEO.
"Under his strong personal leadership, BMO changed the systems and structures that had served our bank for more than 150 years, and created a new, stronger financial services organization capable of meeting the challenges of globalization."
Mr. Mulholland also brought other changes to the bank, expanding its technology and improving portfolio management and credit-granting processes, Mr. Downe said.
"As important as his contributions to the business were, Bill Mulholland will also be remembered for his commanding presence and his timely and insightful comments on public policy issues of the day," said Mr. Downe. "He didn't hesitate to speak his mind, even when it contradicted 'common wisdom.' "
Mr. Mulholland, who was honourably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1946 and graduated from Harvard University in the early 1950s, joined Morgan Stanley in 1952 and became a general partner of the Wall Street firm a decade later.
While at Morgan Stanley, he led what was then largest-ever sale of corporate securities to finance the Churchill Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador. In 1970, he became president and CEO of Brinco, the company that built the $1-billion hydroelectric plant, a project completed in 1974.
When Mr. Mulholland retired from Bank of Montreal, he joined his wife of 50 years, Nancy, and his son and daughter-in-law to build one of the world's leading stud farms for Hanoverian horses, Windswept Farm, in Georgetown.
A funeral mass for Mr. Mulholland will be held Wednesday in Georgetown. The former CEO will be buried in the United States, with full military honours, in recognition of his military services to the country.