Sports analogies are rife when talking about business, but when Jill Gateman describes the middle market as a team of quarterbacks, you listen. That's because Gateman has spent the better part of the last two decades shaping the middle market offering of industry leaders such as PNC. While she takes on a broader remit in her new role as co-head of U.S. commercial banking, her experiences working with the middle market still drives her thinking.
"If you're familiar with middle market, I look at them as almost like the quarterback. They bring the whole bank to all of our clients and prospects," Gateman observed. Her new role has given her a different perspective on how it fits into the larger commercial bank offering.
That role focuses on TD's national corporate and specialty businesses, including middle market, sponsor-backed and fund finance, institutional commercial real estate, asset-based lending, franchise finance, healthcare, municipal, non-profit and higher education. (Until September 2024, Gateman was head of corporate banking and specialized finance, the role on which her 2025 ranking is based, as per American Banker's methodology requiring a full year of performance.)
She shares the larger community bank remit with Andrew Bregenzer, co-head of U.S. commercial banking. Often the appointment of "co-heads" can indicate a bifurcation that's temporary and addresses a transient concern in the business. Not so in this case. "This was about cohesion and running the businesses in a way that we can cross pollinate, we can cross train, we can tap one another's best practices. We're running the group as one cohesive corporate banking team. Irrespective of all the very bespoke specialties that those businesses are," Gateman said.
The results have spoken for themselves. First-quarter 2025 revenue for TD's Commercial Bank was $840 million, up 9% year-over-year; earnings of $228 million were up 31% year-over-year. A critical part of that portfolio—TD Securities—posted record fees of $26 million, up 63% on the back of the acquisition of Cowen, which provides investment banking, research, sales, trading and alternative investment management services. Most other metrics are also trending in the right direction.
Gateman feels the reason for this is not only the breadth an industry leader like TD can bring in terms of scale, but she also feels that TD has a unique focus on the middle market that was exciting to her as she moved into the new role.
"Competitors might challenge me on this, but I see it in the marketplace. Other players aren't as dedicated to the middle market as we are. I'll say the upper middle market is a segment of the market that's relatively underserved. And I've seen that my entire career," she said.
Gateman's leadership skills and passion have made all the difference. "Jill's vision and focus on our clients and colleagues, reinforcing our culture and investing in our communities will have a lasting impact on TD," said Bregenzer, her co-head in running this business. "She has an unwavering commitment to creating an environment where collaboration thrives. That's a great quality to have in a business partner."
