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Charles E. Rice was born in 1936 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1958 and from Rollins College with a master's degree in business administration in 1964. He also graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in 1975. In 1968, Rice became president of the First National Bank (FNB) of Winter Park.
Rice began his career with Barnett Banks when it acquired FNB of Winter Park in the 1970s. Rice was instrumental in Barnett's expansion into the rapidly growing central Florida market, including Orlando. In 1971, Barnett Banks President Guy W. Botts convinced Rice to move to Jacksonville and join the holding company, Barnett Banks of Florida, Inc. (BBFI). Botts assigned to Rice the responsibility of implementing the branching program.
In 1973, Botts picked Rice as the next president and chief operating officer of Barnett Banks of Florida, Inc. When Botts retired in 1976, Rice became the next chief executive officer. As such, Rice was responsible for expanding Barnett from 120 Florida offices at the beginning of the 1980s to 563 Florida and Georgia offices by late 1989. Rice also oversaw Barnett's transition from a traditional commercial bank to a national financial services company.
Barnett Banks, Inc. continued to expand throughout Florida and into Georgia, and in March 1993 acquired First Florida Banks, Inc. This made Barnett Banks, Inc. the largest banking organization in Florida and the 18th largest in the United States. In 1997 in a $15.5 billion-dollar deal, the largest in the history of banking industry at that time, NationsBank acquired Barnett Banks, Inc. Subsequently, in 1999, NationsBank and BankAmerica merged to form a national bank, Bank of America. With the acquisition of Barnett Banks by NationsBank, Rice moved from chairman and CEO of Barnett to chairman of NationsBank and then to vice chairman of corporate development for Bank of America.
Summary:
This collection contains speech files, newspaper clipping files, magazine articles, and other related records of Charles E. Rice during his career as CEO of Barnett Banks, Inc. The files include Rice's review of the history of banking in Florida and Barnett Bank's history in the twentieth century and his five-year plan from 1983 to 1988. The collection also includes annual shareholders meeting presentations and presidents meeting presentations by Charles Rice and Guy Botts. The newspaper clippings and magazine articles detail Rice's career with Barnett Banks, the Barnett expansion into Georgia, and the eventual acquisition by NationsBank in 1998.
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Folder listing available. 0
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General Note:
This collection was arranged and described from materials obtained from Barnett Banks, Inc. when the Barnett Bank records were transferred to the Florida State Archives between 1999 and 2002.
Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Botts, Guy Warren, 1914-1993 Rice, Charles E. 1936- (Charles Edward),
Barnett Banks Barnett Banks of Florida Barnett National Securities Corporation (Jacksonville, Fla.)
Bank holding companies Florida. Bank management Florida. Bank mergers Florida Banks and banking History Florida. Branch banks Florida
Speeches. aat
for detailed listing.