Greater Bay Bancorp announced Monday that it had promoted Dan R. Francis, the chief operating officer of its ABD Insurance and Financial Services unit, to succeed Frederick J. de Grosz as president and chief executive officer on Jan. 1.
Mr. de Grosz is to join chairman Bruce M. Basso as co-chairman, a new post.
The move came two months after ABD received a subpoena from the New York attorney general seeking information about its contingent commissions and marketing practices. But analysts who cover Greater Bay said they see no connection between the two events.
“This change in leadership had nothing to do with the subpoena,” said Manuel Ramirez, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in San Francisco. “The subpoena was part of a routine investigation by the New York Attorney General. Greater Bay did extensive and expensive internal analysis to see if they did what those other brokers did, and they found that they were on safe ground.”
Joseph K. Morford, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, said, “The subpoena was not unique to Greater Bay or anything they were encountering. I really doubt that one had anything to do with the other.”
Mr. Ramirez said, however, that the change was still unexpected. Mr. de Grosz, who is in his early 60s, had run ABD for 15 years. He and Mr. Basso sold the company to Greater Bay in May 2002.
Mr. de Grosz’s departure as CEO “was only a matter of time, but I just didn’t expect it at this time,” Mr. Ramirez said. “I guess Mr. de Grosz was ready to hang it up. He is staying on the board. So this doesn’t reflect anything more than his interest to do something else.”
Mr. Francis had been president of ABD’s technology division and of its property and casualty operations unit before being named chief operating officer last year. Previously, he was president of the technology division at Minet Insurance Services Inc., which ABD bought in 1997.
ABD Insurance, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., faced scrutiny beginning late last year when Texas regulators asked for information about its contingent commission practices. Greater Bay then initiated a compliance review. And in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this October, it said the review had found no evidence “to indicate any improper activities of the type alleged against firms in New York, nor were any systemic compliance-related issues identified in these general areas of concern.”
Byron A. Scordelis, the president and chief executive officer of Greater Bay, said in a statement that Mr. de Grosz would continue in an active executive role.
