New Regions chief putting stamp on management team

Regions Financial has promoted John Owen to chief operating officer, a newly created position at the Birmingham, Ala., company.

Owen will oversee enterprise operations, information technology, data and analytics, corporate real estate and procurement, corporate marketing, and digital banking, the $125 billion-asset Regions said in a news release Thursday. He will also head its Simplify and Grow initiative to improve customer experience and efficiency.

The elevation of Owen to COO is the latest move by John Turner, who became CEO of Regions this month, to build his management team. On Monday, Turner named Leroy Abrahams to head up the company’s new office of community affairs.

“John is uniquely qualified to lead these enterprise functions, while also working closely with me and our three business segments — consumer, corporate and wealth — to achieve our business objectives,” Turner said in the release.

Owen joined Regions in 2007 as head of operations and technology and held that job until 2009. After that, Owen led the consumer services, business-lines, and regional banking groups before becoming head of enterprise services and consumer banking in March.

Before joining Regions, Owen was CEO of Assurant Specialty Property in Atlanta.

“John is an outstanding leader who has demonstrated an ability to build strong teams and highly effective products and businesses,” Turner said.