Apr. 1--April is shaping up as a pivotal month for Bank of America Corp. chairman and chief executive Ken Lewis.

In the month that marks Lewis' eighth year as CEO, the Charlotte bank is scheduled to disclose first-quarter earnings on April 20, and analysts and investors are waiting to see if he can start delivering on his predictions of a profitable 2009 and a successful merger with Merrill Lynch & Co.

A little more than a week later, Lewis faces what surely will be the most heated shareholder meeting of his tenure. Already, a coalition of unions is calling for his CEO job. And a Houston investment firm is leading a campaign urging shareholders to strip him of his chairman's post.

With shareholders already steamed over dividend cuts, a dismal stock price and fallout from the Merrill acquisition, a poor first-quarter performance would raise ire against Lewis to a new level, experts said. The bank's shares are down 79 percent since the Merrill deal was announced in mid-September. They climbed 13 percent on Tuesday to close at $6.82.

"Another expectation dashed and I think you'll have an open shareholder revolt," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware and a Bank of America shareholder.

A positive quarter would help buoy a workforce that has seen its morale battered by ongoing job cuts, diminished bonuses and the general pall over the financial services industry. It also could aid Lewis' pledge to quickly pay back $45billion in government capital as the public becomes increasingly disenchanted with taxpayer-funded bailouts.

The ouster this week of General Motors Corp. chief executive Rick Wagoner has raised questions about whether financial industry CEOs deserve the same treatment.

Bank of America and rival Citigroup Inc. have both received "more money than GM will ever get," said Sydney Finkelstein, a management professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

"This action may put Ken Lewis under even more pressure," said Finkelstein, the author of a book on leadership called "Think Again," who has been critical of Lewis.

A Bank of America spokesman said the company "does not see the parallel with the U.S. auto industry," noting the bank made $4 billion in net income last year, has had only one quarterly loss since 1991 and has expanded market share in multiple products.

Lewis in January received a public statement of support from the bank's lead director, Temple Sloan.