Boston Private CEO Vaill to leave this year

Timothy Vaill, chairman and chief executive of Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc., will be leaving the bank holding company this year.
Mr. Vaill, who joined Boston Private in January 1993, oversaw an acquisition-triggered expansion into the wealth management, asset management and private-banking sectors through much of his tenure but then retrenched following the 2008 economic collapse.
The board of Boston Private has retained Korn/Ferry International to search for a successor to Mr. Vaill, who is 68, according to a company spokesman. Mr. Vaill will remain through year-end to ensure a smooth transition if the board requests him to stay, he added.
Boston Private, which in mid-2008 received a $75 million injection from The Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, now owns 10 affiliates — including registered investment advisers KLS Professional Advisors Group LLC and Bingham Osborn & Scarborough LLC.
The company divested three wealth management affiliates last year in management buyouts — including Sand Hill Advisors LLC and Rinet Co. LLC, registered investment advisers led respectively by Jane Williams and Dick Thielen.
The bank company also sold its Private Value Investors asset management unit, subsequently renamed Granite Investment Advisors, to employees.
More significantly, the firm sold loan-scarred Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, and Westfield Capital Management Co. LLC, an RIA in Boston with almost $13 billion under management, back to their managers last year.
Boston Private, which has repaid $50 million of the $154 million of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds borrowed from the government, said the sales allowed it to deleverage its balance sheet and reallocate some capital to its remaining affiliates.
“Right now, we are not looking at acquisitions,” chief financial officer David Kaye said in an interview last year.
At a recent investors’ conference, he said the firm’s principal growth initiative is helping its West Coast banks — Charter Private Bank and First Private Bank and Trust — build their financial planning and wealth management prowess by adding products and talented staff.
Mr. Vaill, whose total compensation last year was $2.1 million, was the president of Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. and its Boston Company parent before joining Boston Private. He also served as a senior consultant to Fidelity Investments in 1991 and 1992 to create its personal-trust business for the high-net-worth marketplace, according to his biography on Boston Private’s website.
Shares of Boston Private, which eked out a 2-cent-per-share gain in the fourth quarter, closed up 16 cents at $7.09 on Thursday. The shares have ranged between $4.01 and $8.97 in the past year.
The company ended its first quarter with $18.3 billion in assets, up 4% from Dec. 31.