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• Position: David Carroll and First Union Corp. - Brief Article

Finding ways to upload First Union's Net profit

In the early '90s, before the World Wide Web and a barrage of television commercials made it popular, David Carroll was trading stocks online with a fax modem-to-mainframe link to brokerages. "It has given me some practical basis for what our competitors are up to," says Carroll, 43, Charlotte-based First Union Corp's first chief e-commerce officer.

The 19-year First Union veteran -- a planner by nature, but not rigid, he insists -- will need every advantage if the nation's sixth-largest bank is to meet his goal of turning a profit on its $150 million-a-year, electronic-commerce investment by 2002. First Union's credibility with analysts is still so shaky that he can't afford a major slip. After the bank missed earnings targets twice last year, investors dumped the stock, which was still hovering near its 52-week low of about $28 in early March.

The bank changed its focus from acquisitions to expanding services, including online ones. "Do you feel pressure?" he asks himself. "Yeah. It is not anything new. We've done 90-some acquisitions since I've been here. Every one has been fraught with risk."

Still, e-commerce is uncharted territory for Carroll, despite his online forays. The Rocky Mount native got a bachelor's in business administration from Carolina in 1979 and worked at Wachovia Corp. before joining First Union as a credit analyst in 1981. He's moved 12 times, working...