Lindsey Streeter served 31 years in the U.S. Army and attained the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the highest enlisted rank in the Army. The highly decorated Streeter had seen and overcome challenges and obstacles all his life but now he was about to embark on a challenge unlike any other he had faced before.
He was leaving the military for civilian life.
“I tell people when I joined the Army at 18, I was scared,” said Streeter. “But when I transitioned, I was absolutely horrified.”
This was about nine years ago, and the decision to retire from the military was not easy for Streeter. As he weighed the difficult choice, he says he got some help.
“I believe my transition had some divine intervention,” he said. “I was driving in my car, and I said a prayer. My phone rang within 30 seconds of that prayer, and it was a friend of mine. He had worked with me nine years earlier. He was a great soldier, and we were personal friends. He said he was at Bank of America, and he loved it. Then he said something profound to me. He told me ‘you fit this company.’”
With that recommendation, Streeter applied. He joined Bank of America in 2016.
Streeter still thought of his transition to the civilian sector as a foray into the unknown. His misgivings were eased once he began to experience the Bank of America culture.
“They brought me into a rotational program that recognized my leadership, and the skill sets I brought to the table. They gave me a safe place to land in a learning environment where I could grow as I assimilated into the culture.”
After two years, Streeter moved into other programs that exposed him to leaders in the company, helping him develop additional skills. Then, Streeter became the bank’s Military Affairs Director, and when the top executive in that organization retired, Streeter became, and is now, Senior Vice President, Global Military Affairs.
It was the early 1990s and sixteen-year-old James Cadet was walking down the driveway of his house in Rockland County, New York. He had walked this driveway hundreds of times before and he had never given it a second thought. Until this day.
Cadet had just overcome a serious battle with a rare but debilitating condition called Henoch-Schonlein purpura, which causes the small blood vessels in the skin, joints and organs to become inflamed and bleed.
“I have no idea how I got it,” Cadet said. “I was losing a lot of weight. I could not eat. I had no energy. I started developing symptoms that were really scary.” I really thought I was dying.”
When doctors were unable to pinpoint the right diagnosis, it was Cadet’s father who came to the rescue. A physician’s assistant, he talked with doctors, did his own research and nailed the diagnosis. Three weeks later, James was back on his feet and walking again.
When Cadet reached the mailbox at the end of his driveway, he found a postcard from West Point. It said that, based on his testing, Cadet could be a great candidate for the Military Academy.
Bank of America recruits and retains veterans through:
- A Military Talent Acquisition team that identifies and recruits veterans via organizations and conferences.
- A specialized veteran recruiter who looks at military resumes and helps candidates translate their military skills into the lexicon of the private sector.
- An onboarding process that pairs new veteran hires with tenured veteran employees to help them acclimate.
- Military development programs, which Streeter calls the company’s “pride and joy,” to identify emerging talent and connect them to various advancement opportunities.
- A Military Support & Assistance Group Employee Network, open to all employees for mentoring, volunteer events, and forums.
- A Military Spouse & Partner Forum and a Military Parent Forum, through which employees with similar experiences can learn from and lean on each other.
- A specialized Life Event Services team that provides connections to community resources, confidential counseling, and more.
“I never thought about the military as a kid,” Cadet recalls, “but when I was younger, dad made my sisters and me watch 60 Minutes every Sunday night. One week, when I was about 10, there was a segment on West Point which was only about 20 minutes from my house. I remember vividly that night my father saying, ‘if you go to a school like West Point, you are set for life.’
“I thought that my dad – who had just saved my life – would be so proud if I went to West Point. So, I applied. I was very surprised that 10 months later, I was notified that I got in.”
Cadet graduated from West Point and served as an intelligence officer at Fort Hood in Texas for five years. As his fifth service anniversary approached, he began looking at a transition.
“My passion was more in the civilian sector, and I found my way toward finance,” Cadet said. “That is what I spent much of my time reading rather than tactical manuals.”
He retired from the military in June 2001.
After about a year, during which he dabbled “with some success” in real estate, Cadet was contacted by a fellow veteran who worked in a financial advisory company. They met, talked, and Cadet was hired. Thus, he began his career in wealth management, first with Morgan Stanley, then with UBS.
He joined Merrill Lynch, the wealth management arm of Bank of America in 2019.
Today, he is Market Executive for Merrill’s Paramus office which includes two other offices, one in Fort Lee and one in West Nyack. He manages a staff of about 200 people and about $200 billion in assets and liabilities.
Streeter has spent much of his time at Bank of America helping to enhance its welcoming culture for veterans.
“There are a lot of companies and organizations that say they are veteran-friendly, but many are not veteran-ready,” said Streeter. We invested a lot of capital internally to make ensure Bank of America was veteran ready.”
One of his first initiatives was to figure out why more veterans were not being hired or retained.
“We looked internally to see which veterans showed the highest retainability. We asked what traits they demonstrated and where we found them. We looked at how we would target military installations and job fairs which would give us the best opportunity to find the right fit.
“We made a pledge in 2014 to hire 10,000 veterans. We hit that number in 2020,” said Streeter who, among his many accomplishments, was named the “2023 Veteran of the Year” by Military Times. He was cited for his work supporting veterans working at Bank of America and supporting many more veterans and their families as they transitioned out of the military.
“I consider Bank of America veteran-ready,” said James Cadet. “I say that because there is a community here you can insert yourself into as you on-board. Companies may have genuine respect for your service, but they may not be sure how to navigate you and how your skills translate to what they need.
“A lot of veterans struggle with how to translate what they have done in the military and how it can be marketable in the civilian world. Bank of America has teammates that can help translate what they have done and help them create a story, so it resonates with the civilian world.”
Cadet, named earlier this year to ROI-NJ’s 2025 Power List in banking, cites his own career at Merrill as an example. He believes his military experience and West Point background prepared him for a leadership track.
“I think they saw me as someone who could naturally adapt to the leadership environment,” he said.
Cadet urges veterans nearing transition to “leverage their network. Reach out to people you know who are doing well, especially someone who is a veteran.”
