Robert G. Wilmers is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of M&T Bank Corporation (“M&T”) (NYSE:MTB) and its principal subsidiary, M&T Bank. He has served in that position since May 1983, when M&T had assets of $2 billion. Today, M&T’s assets total more than $68 billion.
Wilmers graduated from Harvard College and attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. After working in industry and banking in New York, he served in New York City government and then went on to work at Morgan Guaranty Trust Company.
In 1992, the State University of New York Buffalo School of Management named him Niagara Frontier Executive of the Year. In 1991, the Greater Buffalo Chamber of Commerce named him Western New Yorker of the Year.
He has received honorary degrees from Canisius College (Doctor of Humane Letters in 1988), from Niagara University (Doctor of Commercial Science in 1991) and from the State University of New York at Buffalo (Doctor of Humane Letters in 2004).
He was cited by the Buffalo News in 1987 and 1994 as a Citizen of the Year. Wilmers received the 2005 American Banker Lifetime Achievement Award.
Wilmers serves on the board of directors of the Business Council of New York State, Inc. He served as Chairman of the New York State Bankers Association in 2002 and as a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1993 to 1998.