BB & T's COO was one of the original fab five.

• Author: Elmore, Cindy J.
• Position: People - Chief operating officers - Kelly King - Branch Banking and Trust Co.

When Kelly King finished business school at East Carolina University in 1971, he had four job offers. Three were out of state, too far away for the Zebulon native. The other was from "a little old Eastern North Carolina bank" he had never heard of. Based in Wilson, Branch Banking and Trust Co. had just hired Henry Williamson, a friend and fellow ECU MBA. King signed on.

BB & T hired a cadre of young MBAs about that time, and they've helped it grow into the nation's ninth-largest bank. King, 55, who was president and banking-network manager, became chief operating officer--the bank's No. 2 position--July 1.

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During his early years there, BB & T was "very relaxed, very laid-back." Had things not changed, he says, "I think I would have probably fallen asleep."

He wasn't used to a life of leisure. The work on his family's small Zebulon farm kept the 6-foot-4-inch King from playing high-school basketball or much else. Along with going to school and helping raise and harvest tobacco, cotton, corn and soybeans, he pitched in when his father made repairs around the farm. If he stood idle too long, his dad would chide him: You can't do anything in life with your hands in your pockets. "What that taught me over the years is that someone has to take the initiative."

His father's advice played out in 1980, when he, Williamson, fellow ECU alumnus Ken Chalk, now chief credit officer, Scott Reed, now chief financial officer, John Allison, now chairman and CEO, and another young colleague, Jack Mitchell, decided the bank needed to be shaken up. Founded in 1872, it was tradition-bound and still tied to its roots as a small Eastern North Carolina farm lender. "We were, of course, eager beavers ready to change the world," he says.

Its then-CEO Thorne Gregory met with the men, some of whom were considering leaving. "There were...