Zions CEO Closes Chapter in Exceptional Career In 1990, Scott Anderson left a promising career at Bank of America to return to Utah and work at his hometown bank. More than three decades later, he now retires as president and CEO, leaving Zions Bank, the banking industry and the larger community immeasurably transformed by his leadership. After receiving degrees from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, Anderson began his career in San Francisco as part of Bank of America’s international banking division. He was later assigned to Tokyo, where he spent seven years before returning to San Francisco to establish a small-business banking program and manage the company’s main office in the city. “I loved Bank of America. It was a terrific opportunity,” Anderson said. “But I really welcomed the opportunity to come home.” Anderson had been a customer of Zions Bank since the age of 14, when he opened an account at the 7th East branch to deposit his paychecks from Bratten’s Seafood Grotto, where he worked as a busboy. He brought to his Zions Bank office a bust of Amadeo Giannini, the Italian immigrant who founded Bank of America in San Francisco in the early 1900s. Following the 1906 earthquake that leveled the city, Giannini set up a makeshift desk on top of a barrel and loaned money to those who needed it to rebuild. He later boasted that every earthquake loan he made was repaid. Giannini’s daughter, Claire, gave Anderson the bust when he left Bank of America to remind him, he said, that the main value of money is to help people and their community grow. Bolstering the success of individuals and Main Streets would likewise be a central focus of Anderson’s career. In Anderson’s early years at Zions Bank, he established a successful retail banking division and helped expand the branch and ATM network, which was half its current size. He also led Zions in becoming one of the top U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) lenders in Utah, and later in Idaho. Anderson was named Zions Bank’s president and CEO in January 1998, succeeding Harris Utah Banker 8
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