Former First Interstate chief focuses on education.

Bill Siart's career has taken him from chief executive of what once was the state's third-largest bank to education reformer.

The transformation wasn't entirely by choice. Siart abruptly left banking when First Interstate Bancorp was acquired by Wells Fargo & Co., a takeover he fought against, but lost. He then regrouped and tried to become superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. But the board opted to go with district insider Ruben Zacarias.

Siart looks at the back-to-back defeats as an opportunity.

"It was difficult for me. But then you say, 'Let's get on with the second half of your life.' You don't always choose what happens to you," said Siart, 52.

Instead of leading a life of leisure on his $12.5 million payout from First Interstate, Siart says he is as busy now as he was when worked for a paycheck. For the past 18 months, he has been helping public schools become independent charter schools through his firm, EXED (a name derived from "excellent education").

Siart said his for-profit company isn't making any money yet and may convert to non-profit status. He also spends considerable hours on other educational and civic endeavors and boards, including chairing the Disney Concert Hall.

Back in 1979, Siart had only been with First Interstate for about a year and in banking for about 10 years, having started in 1969 with Bank of America. As the then-head of marketing and planning, be helped spearhead the bank's name change from Western Bancorporation to First Interstate and its pioneering expansion of automated teller services.

In 1981, Siart was dispatched to Reno to run First Interstate of Nevada, one of the 21 bank operating units that the company owned. It gave him a good foundation in running a financial institution, and in 1985, he returned to L.A. and was promoted to chief executive of First Interstate Bank of California, which had 15,000 employees and was the bank's largest operating subsidiary.

Siart moved up the ladder again in 1990, becoming president of the parent company, overseeing 40,000 employees and a $3 billion annual budget. By the time he became chairman and CEO in 1995, he was only 48.

"I worked real hard. I had a lot of luck in getting the right job and doing it well," Siart said.

The biggest challenge was to change what had been a staid industry. "We were large bureaucracies that were inner-focused and employee-focused, and what we needed to do was become customer-focused and cut costs and deliver more services," he said.

He modified the staffing over the lunch hour to make sure there was sufficient personnel when most folks visited branches. He also started a campaign to give customers $5 if they waited in line longer than five minutes (which cost the bank $800,000 the first year).

While his superiors sometimes questioned the changes, Siart said they left him alone as long as he got results. And he did.

During his tenure as chief executive, the stock climbed 153 percent. Siart said the improved profits, and stock price, stemmed largely from cutting costs and eliminating problem loans.

But First Interstate's boosted fortunes also made it a prime takeover candidate.

Siart said he tried to form an alliance with U.S. Bank in Minneapolis - an institution he saw as more compatible - but "the marketplace was so enamored with Wells Fargo)."

It was an exhausting time. He worked seven days a week, getting home around midnight and then leaving for work again at 5 or 6 a.m. "It was a very hard process to go through, fighting a hostile takeover, getting another deal together and running the business. It's the hardest I've ever worked," Siart said.

The shareholders wanted the best price possible, so the merger went through in early 1996. Siart said it was clear he wasn't going to remain with the combined bank.

"I'd been fighting them for six months, It would be hard for them to say, 'Join the team,'" he said. "The minute it was done, I packed my bags and left."

Headhunters called, but Siart decided to take a break and went on a two-week vacation to Hawaii, where he pondered his next career move.

"I didn't want to make a rush decision. I had done very well in the corporate world," he said. "I didn't want to do what I'd already done."

So he wrote his own job description and decided it would emphasize K-12 education. His interest in education went back to his days at First Interstate, when most entry-level applicants flunked an eighth-grade math test.

He brought a businessman's mindset to his campaign for superintendent, arguing that the district's main problem was its huge bureaucracy. He advocated reallocating more resources to the schools and holding individual schools responsible for meeting standards.

After the board opted for a career educator, Siart concluded there were other ways to help the schools. He formed EXED and got involved in a host of educational and civic organizations. So far, EXED has consulted with 10 schools, and Siart said he has become an expert on education finance.

"I've got 50 years for the second half of my life. I can do these things with a long-term view to improving L.A. and for K-12 education, specifically for inner-city kids," Siart said.