Bank CEOs post-merger: Where are they now?

April 3, 2022 9:00 PM

When a bank gets sold, its CEO often sits at a career crossroads.

Sometimes the chief executive is close to retirement age; indeed, the decision to sell the bank is frequently tied to the career arc of an aging CEO. But in other cases, the top executive at the acquired bank still has plenty of working years left.

The career paths of eight former CEOs, summarized below, suggest that these executives regularly find a new role in the banking industry — often as a board member or as the chief executive of another bank.

But some of the former chief executives have taken less common career turns, including one who did a high-profile stint in government and another who had a short turn at the top of the city of Cleveland’s public-school system.

The list spans nearly 15 years of bank M&A — from Commerce Bancorp’s sale back in 2007 to two regional-bank deals that closed earlier this year.

Metro Bank Plc Chairman Vernon Hill Interview

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Vernon Hill, Commerce Bancorp

Hill started Commerce Bank in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in the 1970s and built it into a retail powerhouse that was eventually acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank in 2007.

In 2010, Hill launched Metro Bank in the United Kingdom, but later found himself in hot water with British regulators. After the company’s share price plunged in 2019, he stepped down as Metro’s chairman.

Since 2016, Hill has been chairman of Republic First Bancorp in Philadelphia, and last year he became the bank’s CEO.

Since then, the $5.6 billion-asset company has grown its deposits by 18%. But some investors have criticized the company for being slow to turn those deposits into revenue-churning assets.

And now, investor groups are pushing for changes, which include replacing Hill. One of the groups includes Gregory Braca, the former president and CEO of TD Bank’s U.S. unit.

JOHN QUINN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Peter Raskind, National City

Raskind became CEO of National City Corp. in July 2007, staying in the job only until PNC Financial Services Group closed its purchase of the Cleveland bank at the end of 2008.

The decision to sell came at a time of duress. Raskind later recalled conversations he had with depositors who were withdrawing cash from National City amid the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

"Even if it was based on rumors, nevertheless for the people, for their own peace of mind — they would withdraw the dollars," Raskind reportedly said during a deposition.

After National City was sold, Raskind did a short stint as interim CEO of the Cleveland public schools.

In 2012, he was named to the board of directors at Capital One Financial, and a decade later he still holds that position.

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Joseph Otting, OneWest Bank

Otting was the chief executive of OneWest Bank from 2010 to 2015, when the Pasadena, California, company was purchased by CIT Group.

During the Trump administration, Otting served as comptroller of the currency alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who previously served as OneWest’s chairman, and hired Otting as CEO.

During his tenure as comptroller between 2017 and 2020, Otting made waves by splitting from other regulators on updates to Community Reinvestment Act rules and over his openness to special-purpose fintech charters.

Since leaving government, Otting has landed on the board of the mortgage and real estate tech company Black Knight.

Gary Crosby, First Niagara Financial Group

Crosby was at the helm of First Niagara for less than two years when the Buffalo, New York, company struck a deal in 2015 to be acquired by KeyCorp. The $4.1 billion transaction was completed about 10 months later.

Crosby, who was one of three First Niagara directors to join Key’s board, served nearly five years in that role before he retired from the board in May 2021. But he hasn’t fully stepped away from banking.

Crosby is currently president of the First Niagara Foundation, the charitable arm of the former banking company. The foundation has been in spend-down mode since 2016 and will cease operations at the end of this year, according to its website.

Kelly King, BB&T

By late 2019, King had been CEO of BB&T Corp. for 10 years when the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, company and Atlanta’s SunTrust Banks completed the largest bank merger since the 2008 financial crisis.

More than three years later, the $66 billion blockbuster deal to create Truist Financial is still the largest in recent history.

Despite the upheaval caused by the pandemic, King kept his original plan to retire as CEO on Sept. 12, 2021, the day he turned 73. He gave up his seat as chairman on March 12 of this year.

King plans to remain a director of the $541 billion-asset company through Dec. 31, 2023. Last month, in a LinkedIn post noting his departure as board chair, King matched Truist’s mission word for word when he wrote that he plans to “inspire and build better lives and communities” in his next chapter.

Javier Rodríguez Soler, BBVA USA

Rodríguez Soler was still relatively new to his role as CEO in November 2020, when PNC reached an $11.6 billion deal to acquire the U.S. arm of Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.

Rodríguez Soler stayed with BBVA, and in July 2021, a month after the acquisition was finalized, the Spanish company named him as its global head of sustainability, reporting to CEO Onur Genç and Group Chair Carlos Torres Vila.

Sustainability is a new business line for BBVA, the purpose of which is to help clients transition to a more sustainable future, the company said in a press release.

Ellen Alemany, CIT Group

Alemany, previously the chair and CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland’s U.S. arm, which later became Citizens Financial Group, was named chair and chief executive of CIT Group in 2016.

In the fall of 2020, First Citizens Bancshares in Raleigh, North Carolina, announced a deal to acquire New York-based CIT. The acquisition wasn’t completed until January 2022, about a month after it finally got regulatory approval.

But the long wait will be worth it. Alemany, who is now vice chair of First Citizens, stands to get a $6.9 million annual bonus at the end of every 12-month term after the deal closes.

Keeping her involved gives First Citizens a high-level executive familiar with some of the niche CIT businesses that the combined company’s leadership plans to keep running.

Jack Kopnisky, Sterling Bancorp

Kopnisky became Sterling’s CEO in 2013, after having previously served as chief executive of Provident New York Bancorp, which acquired Sterling and took on its name.

Last April, Connecticut-based Webster Financial announced a deal to acquire Sterling. As part of the agreement, Kopnisky agreed to serve as executive chairman of the combined company for 24 months, and then to continue in a consulting role for another 12 months. The deal closed on Feb. 1.