For more than 30 years, Neal has been actively involved in corporate, bank holding company and bank mergers, acquisitions, conversions, and restructurings. He has led the legal work in international transactions in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and the Caribbean, and he has represented banks and other international companies establishing operations or making acquisitions in the United States. Neal has also advised both U.S. and non-U.S. companies on licensing and other regulatory issues relating to establishment of mobile payment systems in the U.S. His regulatory experience involves practice before all of the federal bank regulatory agencies, as well as the Office of the Commissioner of Banks of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the bank regulators of other states.
In addition, he has served as an external legal consultant to the central banks of Uganda and Rwanda and to the governments of Ghana and Tanzania. Neal’s international experience encompasses work for financial institutions in Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the National Bank of Macedonia through such organizations as Financial Services Volunteer Corps and the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative.
Other Involvements
- Neal is a member of the Executive Committee, the secretary, the chairman of the Governance Committee and a trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
- Neal serves as a Trustee of the Massachusetts Hospital Association as a representative of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
- He is a trustee emeritus of Berklee College of Music, having served on the Executive Committee and as chairman of the Trustee Academic Affairs Committee and Presidential Search Committee.
- He served through 1998 as a director of Citizens Corporation, a NYSE-listed property and casualty insurance holding company and subsidiary of Allmerica Financial of Massachusetts.
- Neal has been active for many years in Harvard alumni activities. He has served on the board of governors of the Harvard Club of Boston and was co-chair of the club’s Schools and Scholarships Committee for many years. He is also former director of the Harvard Alumni Association and has chaired the Nominating Committee for Overseers of Harvard University and HAA Directors. He has served as a member of the Harvard Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and the HAA Alumni Awards Committee.
- He is a former commissioner by gubernatorial appointment of the Finance Commission of the City of Boston.
- He frequently lectures on various bank corporate and regulatory topics.
- Neal has a PADI Master Scuba Diver Rating.