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Contact: David West
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
11/18/98
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - Northwestern alumnus Theodore H. Roberts will be the speaker at NSU's fall commencement exercises Friday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. in Prather Coliseum.
Roberts is special consultant to ABN AMRO North America and a director of LaSalle National Corporation and LaSalle National Bank. He retired in Dec. 1995 after a 42-year career in banking. Prior to retirement, Roberts was president of LaSalle National Corporation, a Chicago-based bank holding company and chairman of LaSalle Bank, FSB. He was also chief financial officer and executive committee member of ABN AMRO North America, the United States banking affiliate of a Dutch-based international banking organization, ABN AMRO Bank. Concurrently, Roberts was chairman of LaSalle Home Mortgage Corporation and President of ABN AMRO Services Company.
From 1985 to 1992, he was chairman and chief executive officer of Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Illinois, a position he assumed at the request of the federal government when the thrift industry was in crisis.
In 1982, after 30 years in commercial banking at Harris Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago, he accepted the position of president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, where he served until returning to Chicago to take over Talman. During that period, he was a member of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington, D.C., which manages the nation's monetary policy.
Roberts earned a bachelor's degree in government at Northwestern. He received a master's in political science at Oklahoma State. Roberts was inducted into the NSU Hall of Distinction, the Long Purple Line, in 1996.
Roberts is involved in civic activities including board memberships in the Illinois Board of Banks and Trust Companies, the Chicago Central Area Committee and Neighborhood Housing Services where he was chairman of the Leadership Committee. He also headed the Chicago Area Metropolitan Division fund raising drive for the United Way. In St. Louis, he served on the boards of United Way and St. Luke's Hospital.