Synovus Financial Corp. has completed a six-month search for a new head for its financial management group by promoting one of its own executives to the post.
The Columbus, Ga., banking company named Andrew R. Klepchick Thursday to be the president and CEO of the group, which oversees investment management, private banking, and insurance services. He also was named a corporate executive vice president.
Mr. Klepchick previously was the executive vice president of Creative Financial Group, a financial planning company he co-founded in 1988 that was bought by Synovus four years ago. It manages $900 million of assets.
In February, Walter A. "Sonny" Deriso Jr. resigned as a vice chairman at $27 billion-asset Synovus and the head of financial management services. G. Sanders Griffith 3d, Synovus' general counsel and secretary, was assigned to oversee the group in the interim.
Richard Anthony, the company's president and CEO, said last month during a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings that Synovus had interviewed seven candidates to succeed Mr. Deriso.
A company spokeswoman said Thursday that Mr. Klepchick and Mr. Anthony were involved in meetings and unavailable to comment by press time.
Christoper Marinac, an analyst at FIG Partners in Atlanta, said he thought the lengthy search would have led to an outsider. He said he was sure Synovus "gave it a hard look before going internal."
Mr. Marinac said Mr. Klepchick would be a "solid and credible" leader for the division and that his transition should "be relatively smooth." With a permanent chief, he said, the Synovus group can aggressively promote itself, especially to the CEOs of Synovus' 39 banks that could sell its services.
