Bank of America Appoints Raymond Bednar as Sports Sponsorship Executive

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America, one of the world's largest financial institutions, today announced that Raymond Bednar has joined the company as Senior Vice President and Sports Sponsorship Executive. In this new role, Bednar will oversee strategy and activation development for the company's expansive sports sponsorship portfolio, including Major League Baseball, motorsports, Olympics, golf and football.

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As part of the company's Global Marketing organization, Bednar will be based in Charlotte, reporting to Rick Parsons, Executive Vice President and Brand Marketing Executive who is responsible for sponsorships, brand strategy, local market planning and analytics. Bednar joins Bank of America after having spent the last four years as CEO of North America and South America for PRISM, a global agency focused on sponsorship and event strategy and activation, and a member of WPP Group. Prior to PRISM, Bednar served in leadership roles with Brown-Forman Corporation and General Electric.

"Ray is an experienced and talented leader, who will help us maximize the unprecedented sports sponsorship portfolio that we have built," said Parsons. "He will be instrumental in developing and executing a well-integrated strategy that expands the ways in which we can drive solid business results from our sponsorship platforms."

Bednar is a graduate of the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. and earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. In 2005, he authored the book, Sponsorship's Holy Grail, a guide for using Six Sigma in the analysis and execution of sponsorships.

Bank of America is a leading financial partner, advisor and sponsor across all major sports. As a world-class financial institution with a dedicated Sports Finance and Advisory team, the company helps owners, leagues and franchises address their full range of needs -- from financing stadiums to redesigning their capital structure. As a sports marketing leader, Bank of America is proud to be the Official Bank of Baseball(TM) and an Official Sponsor of the 2006-2008 U.S. Olympic Teams, and to support an expansive nationwide sponsorship portfolio that includes professional golf, football and motorsports.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving more than 38 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,700 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 14 million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority-owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 97 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 79 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/