growth and longed to expand its presence outside of the so-called rust belt states of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. The merger was announced in early October 1993. This time it was Riley who made the first move; he called Gillespie while recuperating at his Albany home after breaking his hip in a horse-riding accident in Wyoming. The two quickly sketched out the deal. The banks were roughly the same size in assets and had very little geographic overlap, so it was touted as an out-of-market merger in which few branches needed to be sold off. It created a $58 billion banking behemoth with a footprint that literally stretched from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. Furthermore, the deal plugged many of the perceived holes for both partners. The soft-spoken Gillespie was just 49 and Society had cultivated a deep bench of lieutenants. More importantly, Society had the computer systems and technology expertise to combine the two banks, along with Chief Information Officer Allen J. Gula. Riley also lamented the modest Albany International Airport, which lost service from several major airlines in the 1980's and complicated air travel for Key executives. Ohio also had lower state taxes than New York. Lastly, Society had recently built Society Center (now Key Tower), a 947-foot skyscraper that was more commensurate with a major bank headquarters than the modest buildings used in Albany. These issues made Cleveland the preferable location for the merged bank's headquarters. Conversely, Key's brand was more recognizable. The deal was structured as a merger of equals. The merged bank took the KeyCorp name, and operates under the charter of the old KeyCorp. However, Society was the nominal survivor; the merged bank was headquartered in Cleveland and retains Society's pre-1994 stock price history. The Society name continued to be used in Society's former footprint for an additional two more years before it was retired in June 1996 and the charters were merged. Riley became chairman and CEO of the "new" KeyCorp, with Gillespie as president and chief operating officer. Despite assurances from both Riley and Gillespie, the city of Albany and then-Governor Mario Cuomo openly fretted that the merger would be bad for the state capital since Key and its subsidiaries owned or leased more than 10% of Albany's commercial office space. By 2014, only about 225 non-branch employees were still based in Albany at the KeyCorp Tower. Society and Key completed the