BILL REALLY SHOWED SOME GOOD LEADERSHIP FOR THE COUNTRY, AS WELL AS FOR HIS INSTITUTION

admiration for.”

Nixon says a chief executive should “leave a campsite in better shape than they found it.”

“Clearly, I would describe Bill as having done that at the Bank of Montreal…. He’s leaving it in much better shape.”

Under Downe, BMO has also shaken off the market perception of being behind the curve, says Grauman.

“To some extent, Darryl is getting the benefit of transitioning at a time when BMO is on the upswing,” he says. “In and of itself, that is the challenge. There (are) no easy quick fixes for a new person to come in and quickly, meaningfully change the strategy and meaningfully improve performance.”

Downe sees his successor — with whom he worked for two decades at BMO Nesbitt Burns — as up to the task.

“The parts of the U.S. that we’ve been investing in heavily for the last 15 years are right now at the point where they are just maturing,” Downe says, noting the growth in U.S. investment banking and the potential in capital markets and lending.

“And I’m confident that under Darryl’s leadership that they’re going to continue to make real progress.”

Later that night in London, a crowd of roughly 200 clients, executives and local dignitaries gathers at a celebratory dinner for BMO at Canada House at the High Commission in Trafalgar Square, where they sipped B.C. wines and Molson Canadian amid artwork by the Group of Seven.

While the evening, held under the Chatham House Rule that prevents identifying guests, is mainly a testament to the bank’s history, there are plenty of plaudits for Downe as well.

As one attendee puts it: “When I want a sense of what’s going on in the certainly Canadian economy, the U.S. economy, the real economy, and a sense of the core — not the headlines, and not the data, but what businesses think — Bill Downe is in my experience the best person to speak to.”