Zions' latest C-suite shuffle puts new bank head in Utah

• Key insight: Paul Burdiss' departure comes less than two years after he landed in the role, which Zions had said aligned with its succession planning progress.
• What's at stake: Harris Simmons, chairman and CEO of the Salt Lake City-based parent company, has led the bank for 35 years.
• Forward look: Nathan Callister, the incoming president and CEO of the bank's Utah division, joined Zions earlier this year.

Update: This story includes additional information from a Zions representative.

The president and CEO of Zions Bancorp.'s largest banking subsidiary will retire just under two years after stepping into the role, the company announced.

Paul Burdiss, who has led Salt Lake City-based Zions' operations in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming since last April, will be succeeded by Nathan Callister, who currently leads commercial banking at the subsidiary. Callister joined Zions about six months ago, after heading up Wells Fargo's commercial banking business in Utah and Idaho since 2019.

Burdiss joined Zions in 2015, first serving as chief financial officer of the parent company for nine years before taking the helm of the eponymous banking subsidiary last year. His transition marked a major shift in longtime leadership, as his predecessor, A. Scott Anderson retired after holding the position for more than 25 years.

Harris Simmons, chairman and CEO of the parent company, said in a prepared statement Monday that Burdiss had been "instrumental in building a very strong finance team" at Zions, and "in continuing to strengthen Zions Bank's position as the Intermountain West's premier banking organization."

Although Burdiss will retire on Dec. 31, he will stay on at the company in a transition and advisory service role for all of 2026, bound by non-compete and non-solicit provisions, unless terminated earlier by the company, according to a public filing.

Burdiss, 60, will receive up to $1.4 million in the temporary position. His outstanding equity and cash incentive plan-based awards will also continue to be distributed. In 2024, his total compensation was $2.5 million.

Zions didn't provide a reason for the leadership shift, but a spokesperson said in an email to American Banker that the timing of the move allows Callister to begin 2026 in his new role.

"At Zions Bancorporation, we foster a culture of leadership development and engage in regular succession planning with an eye toward the future as we continually cultivate our robust leadership pipeline," a Zions spokesperson said in an email to American Banker. "Zions has a complete and active CEO succession plan, with multiple internal candidates, overseen by its Board of Directors."

The $89 billion-asset company operates in 11 states through eight subsidiaries. Burdiss' division is the largest, followed closely by units in California and Texas, respectively, according to Zions' 2024 annual report.

The announcement of Burdiss' plan to retire from Zions Bank comes weeks after another one of the parent company's subsidiaries shuffled local leadership.

Vectra Bank Colorado, which generated roughly one-fifth of the revenue that Zions Bank earned in 2024, recently named Dominic Karaba as president and CEO following the departure of 25-year Vectra veteran Bruce Alexander.

The leadership changes also land on the heels of a $50 million credit hit that Zions took in October, due to what it called a one-off, fraud situation within its California subsidiary. The bank launched a lawsuit against the borrowers — which denied wrongdoing — to recover the debts tied to the two fraught loans, which amount to $100 million and $60 million.

Zions Chief Credit Officer Derek Steward said on the company's earnings call in October that he was "confident" the loss was an isolated incident.

"One of the strengths of our model is we try to have local decisioning at the affiliates … where they know the companies best," Steward said.

The company's stock plunged some 14% at the time, but recovered and stabilized in the following days. The share price is now up 10% since January, slightly outperforming the KBW Nasdaq Regional Banking Index.

"Our credit history over a number of years speaks for itself," Simmons said in October. "This was a case where we had some unusual things going on that really are not commonplace. We're going to continue reviewing with an external party to make sure that we're learning from the experience and seeing what we can continue to improve upon."

Succession planning

Simmons, who was 70 as of March, has worked at the company since 1970, when his father was still CEO. The younger Simmons has been an officer of the company for nearly 45 years, and became Zions' chief executive in 1990, then chairman in 2002.

In a 2018 interview, Simmons said he had been "thinking a lot recently" about the long-term outlook for the bank. He said at the time that he didn't have any immediate plans to retire, "but time will bring that to pass."

He added that he was spending a lot of time on succession planning, focusing on a group of midcareer professionals to eventually run the company.

Other top executives at the bank include Scott McLean, president and chief operating officer of the parent company for more than a decade, and Ryan Richards, who succeeded Burdiss last year as the parent's CFO.

In March, Zions said in a public filing that the 2024 leadership moves — Burdiss moving from CFO to leading Zions Bank, and Richards' promotion to finance chief — were aligned with the bank's succession planning process.