Banks wrestle with CEO succession plans

April 10, 2024 12:37 PM

Jamie Dimon 072823 — Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., speaks during the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. This year's conference theme is "The Search for Stability in an Era of Uncertainty, Realignment and Transformation."

On April 8, the board of JPMorgan Chase released its proxy statement in advance of its annual meeting of shareholders. While the statement is ostensibly a pitch to shareholders about reelecting board members and to justify executive pay packages, this year, the board outlined its thoughts on CEO succession.

JPMorgan wasn't the only bank grappling with who would one day — or in short order — take over the top spot. Last year, Morgan Stanley elevated a decades-long veteran to lead the bank; Ally Financial recently ended a six-month CEO search, resulting in Discover losing its CEO; Zions' CEO is leaving this month after a 25-year tenure; and Mastercard's chief product officer became its CEO at the beginning of 2021.

Here's a look at some of the moves, and would-be moves, at these five banks.

JPMorgan Chase

While JPMorgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, has made it clear that he's not going anywhere soon, the bank's most recent shareholder proxy statement laid out who is being considered to take over when he exits.

Three longtime The Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance honorees are among the board's choices. Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management and last year's Most Powerful Women in Finance, is a contender. Also under consideration are Marianne Lake and Jennifer Pieszak, who were co-CEOs of consumer and community banking, and were promoted in January to sole CEO of consumer and community banking and co-CEO of the expanded commercial and investment bank, respectively.

Troy Rohrbaugh, now Piepszak's co-CEO of commercial and investment banking, is also one of the five candidates the board named as a possible Dimon successor.

However, the likeliest successor is Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer, who once stepped into the CEO role. In March 2020, Dimon underwent emergency surgery to repair a tear in his heart's main artery. As he recuperated, Pinto and Gordon Smith, then co-presidents and co-chief operating officers, took over for Dimon until his return.

"Should the need arise in the near-term, the Board views Mr. Pinto as a key executive who is immediately ready to lead the Firm and fulfill the responsibilities of CEO, as his exceptional leadership capabilities are well-known to our shareholders," the proxy statement reads.

Smith, who ran the consumer bank, retired at the end of 2021.

Ally Financial

Michael Rhodes became Ally Financial's chief executive officer on April 29, 2024.

In a surprise announcement in October 2023, Ally's then-CEO Jeffrey Brown said that he was stepping down at the end of 2024, with no immediate successor lined up.

One month after his announcement, longtime Most Powerful Women in Banking honoree Diane Morais, president of Ally's consumer and commercial banking, who was once considered a potential successor to Brown, said she was leaving in July to "pursue new opportunities."

Ally, however, decided not to wait for Brown's term to end. Three months after his announcement, the bank said that Douglas Timmerman, the president of dealer financial services, would take over as interim CEO on February 1.

Following a six-month search for a permanent CEO, in March, Ally announced that it was hiring Michael Rhodes, CEO of Discover to fill the top job. The unexpected move created turmoil at Discover, where Rhodes had only served as CEO for three months.

Discover

Michael Rhodes, a longtime TD executive, was tapped in December to take over the CEO spot at Discover from its interim CEO John Owen. Owen had taken over in August when the credit card giant's longtime CEO Roger Hochschild abruptly resigned following a series of compliance issues and other missteps.

Rhodes was in the job for just three months when he announced that he was leaving to take the CEO spot at Ally. His sudden departure came shortly after Capital One announced that it planned to acquire Discover in a $35 billion deal.

Discover said in a securities filing in March that Rhodes had not been expected to have a long-term role at Capital One following the merger's completion.

Following Rhodes' resignation, Discover named Michael Shepherd, the former Bank of the West chairman and CEO, as its interim president and CEO, effective April 1. Shepherd had been serving on Discover's board of directors since August 2023.

Morgan Stanley

In May 2023, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman announced that he was stepping down after a 14-year tenure as its chief executive. At the time, Gorman did not name a successor.

Five months later, Morgan Stanley announced that it had selected Ted Pick to become its new chief executive officer. Pick, a co-president and three-decade veteran of the firm, would also join its board while Gorman would stay on as executive chairman.

Pick beat out two other CEO contenders: co-President Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz, who has led investment management. In a rare move, Morgan Stanley kept the other two contenders at the bank. Saperstein became the head of wealth and investment management and Simkowitz was named co-president and head of institutional securities.

Mastercard

In February 2020, Mastercard announced that its long-serving CEO, Ajay Banga, would step down at the end of the year. Banga would be succeeded by Michael Miebach, who at that time was the payments giant's chief product officer.

Miebach was instrumental in Mastercard's digital transformation and dealmaking, which helped him carve a path to the C-suite.

After Banga stepped down from his CEO role, he served as Mastercard's executive chairman and was nominated in early 2023 by President Joe Biden to be the president of the World Bank. The board of the World Bank confirmed his nomination and Banga began serving his five-year term in June 2023. He is the 14th World Bank president and is the first Indian American and Sikh American to assume the role.

Zions Bancorp

Paul Burdiss, new president of Zions; A. Scott Anderson, outgoing president of Zions — Zions has promoted CFO Paul Burdiss (left) to succeed A. Scott Anderson, who is retiring as president and CEO of the company's bank unit in April after more than 25 years in the job.

In February, Zions Bank announced that its longtime CEO, A. Scott Anderson, was retiring.

Anderson, a 25-year veteran of the bank, is being replaced by Paul Burdiss, the chief financial officer at the $87 billion-asset parent company. Anderson will become nonexecutive chairman.

Burdiss, who takes over the helm this month, has been Zions CFO for nine years. Prior to Zions, he worked in treasurer positions at Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks, which is now part of Truist Financial, and at Dallas-based Comerica.