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Less than two months after it won a bitter battle to take over Irving Trust Co., Bank of New York has axed at least five top Irving officers and mapped out a broad reorganization of the merged institution that will leave its own people in charge of most of the bank's departments.
In addition, Bank of New York has decided not to sell the Irving headquarters building at One Wall St., as had been widely expected. Instead, it will put its own headquarters building up for sale.
Bank of New York officials would not comment on the firings or the restructuring plan, but according to sources within the bank, the purge of Irving executives has begun in earnest.
Gone are Robert A. Falise, an executive vice president and an architect of Irving's legal defense against Bank of New York's hostile bid; Executive Vice President R. Michael Rice, head of trade finance; and John A. Orr, senior executive vice president, who oversaw fiduciary services. When calls were placed to them, all were said to be no longer working at the bank.
"It was very much to be expected," says William E. Goodman IV, an executive recruiter at Manhattan-based Boyden International Inc., of the firings. "But it is unusual to do it right before Christmas."
While a Bank of...