Bank of America Names Mike Hargrave to Lead Company's Motorsports Marketing Efforts

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Bank of America, one of the world's largest financial institutions, today announced that Mike Hargrave will be joining the company as Senior Vice President and Motorsports Platform Executive, effective September 10, 2007.

In this capacity, Hargrave will oversee strategy and activation development for the company's expansive motorsports sponsorship platform, which includes the bank's designation as the Official Bank of NASCAR, title sponsorship of the Bank of America 500 and sponsorship of 10 tracks throughout the country.


As part of the company's Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs organization, Hargrave will be based in Charlotte, and will report to Ray Bednar, Senior Vice President and Global Sponsorship Marketing executive.


Hargrave joins Bank of America after serving most recently as Vice President of Strategic Alliances for ConAgra Foods, a major U.S. food company, marketing over 40 retail packaged foods brands. In that role, he led the development of retail promotional platforms utilizing NASCAR, Major League Baseball, Collegiate Sports and Action Sports. Prior to that, Hargrave served in sponsorship marketing leadership roles at ChevronTexaco which led to contracts with Metropolitan Opera, U.S. Tennis Association, the U.S. Olympic Committee and a wide variety of US and international motorsports properties including NASCAR, CART and Formula 1. Prior to that, he held various marketing roles with Anheuser-Busch, where he led the execution of sports marketing plans for the Budweiser, Bud Light and Busch brands.


"Mike brings a depth of knowledge and experience to our motorsports platform, and is well-respected by the racing industry," said Bednar. "His strong record of performance prepares him well to lead our significant presence in NASCAR, driving solid business results from our sponsorships and creating exciting and unique experiences for our many customers who are racing fans."


Hargrave is a graduate of Butler University with a Masters Degree in Sports Administration from Ohio University.


Bank of America is widely recognized as a major corporate supporter of motorsports, serving as both the Official Bank of NASCAR and the Official Credit Card Issuer of NASCAR. Bank of America's involvement with racing dates back to the early 1980's, when its legacy banks in Virginia and North Carolina sponsored races and provided financing for motor speedways throughout the United States. Over the last two decades, the company's foray into racing has continued to expand. In 2005, Bank of America announced multi-year sponsorship agreements with International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), for a combined total of 10 track sponsorships and title sponsorship of the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. In 2006, Bank of America entered into a multi-year agreement with the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) to become the Official Bank of NASCAR.


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 57 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 5,700 retail banking offices, more than 17,000 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 22 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 175 countries and has relationships with 99 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE:BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.