<br />
Thursday, December 1, 2011<br />
Banker of the Year<br />
BeSt In BankInG<br />
Throwback Approach Keeps<br />
Wilmers, M&T on Top<br />
W By Matt Monks<br />
hen Robert Wilmers retired as the chief<br />
executive of M&T Bank Corp. in 2005,<br />
he gave little indication that he would<br />
someday return to the corner office.<br />
Sure, Wilmers remained the Buffalo, N.Y., compa-<br />
ny’s chairman and was still involved in major deci-<br />
sions, but he was 71 and M&T seemed in good hands<br />
with a new CEO, whom Wilmers had been grooming<br />
for years.<br />
It turned out, though, that his hand-picked suc-<br />
cessor, Robert Sadler, didn’t like the job much and<br />
in 2007 — after this newspaper had already honored<br />
him with its Lifetime Achievement award — Wilmers<br />
returned as CEO.<br />
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