Fifth Third Bancorp Inc. said Tuesday that George A. Schaefer Jr. plans to hand the chief executive position to company president Kevin Kabat in April but will remain chairman.
"Kevin's leadership since joining the company has been outstanding, and I'm excited about his leadership and the future direction of the company," Mr. Schaefer said in a press release.
The change will become effective after April 17, when the Cincinnati company holds its annual shareholder meeting.
Fifth Third set its succession planning in motion publicly in June, when Mr. Schaefer, who had been CEO since 1991, became chairman. At the same time, Fifth Third promoted Mr. Kabat, the head of consumer banking and its 19 regional banking units, to president from executive vice president.
On Tuesday, Mr. Schaefer cited Mr. Kabat's contribution in helping the $105.8 billion-asset company focus on profitability and remake management in recent years.
"We feel better positioned today than we felt literally the last three years," Mr. Kabat said in an interview. "Today we feel very good and a lot of the hard … decision making is behind us and we are ready to move forward."
"I believe that the management team we have assembled is focused on delivering outstanding performance," Mr. Kabat said in the release.
Mr. Kabat had been an executive vice president at Fifth Third since December 2003, after joining the company in 2001, when Fifth Third bought Old Kent Financial Corp. of Grand Rapids, Mich. He had been a vice chairman at Old Kent and the CEO of its banking subsidiary.
The $4.9 billion purchase was Fifth Third's largest, but it did not adjust its back office operations fast enough to digest the deal. In 2003, Fifth Third entered into a regulatory agreement to beef up risk management, but managed to fulfill all requirements within a one year.
In subsequent years, slow deposit growth and a string of management departures also plagued Fifth Third but Mr. Kabat changed the company's retail banking strategy.
Mr. Schaefer, a former Army officer and a nuclear physicist by training, joined Fifth Third in 1971 as a management trainee. He was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 1989.
