Bankers Who Are CEO Material
March 26, 2013 8:00 AM
For many bankers, becoming chief executive officer is a dream come true. For many bank boards, they're also challenging and high-risk positions to fill. Following are some of the industry's most promising CEO candidates, based on discussions with executive recruiters. (Image: Thinkstock)
Cathy Nash
Recruiters applaud her success cleaning up Citizens Republic (CRBC) in Flint, Mich., and then brokering its sale to FirstMerit (FMER). (Image: Dan Nelken)
Jorge Bermudez
A former chief risk officer at Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bermudez is currently a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Moody's Corp. and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Mark Chancy
Chancy, who oversees commercial and corporate banking at SunTrust (STI), is a terrific CEO candidate, according to one recruiter. He was serving as the Atlanta company's chief financial officer when the financial crisis hit.
Carrie Tolsdtedt
Tolstedt is responsible for retail and business banking at Wells Fargo (WFC). Community banks in particular are keen on hiring CEOs with retail banking experience, one recruiter says.
Al de Molina
The name of the former GMAC CEO and Bank of America CFO comes up frequently during discussions of CEO openings. Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital mentioned de Molina as a candidate to run First Niagara Financial (FNFG), which ousted its previous CEO last week.
Todd Maclin
Maclin relinquished his seat on JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) top management committee in a January shake-up. He became chairman of the company's consumer businesses and commercial bank.
Avid Modjtabai
Modjtabai is Wells Fargo's senior executive vice president of consumer lending. She has also been its head of technology and operations and director of human resources.
Mark Czarnecki, Michael Pinto, Rene Jones
Only one executive can succeed Robert Wilmers at M&T Bank (MTB). Czarnecki (pictured) is M&T's president, Pinto is vice chairman and Jones is the chief financial officer.
John Owen
Owen oversees consumer services, consumer lending, wealth management and business services at Regions Financial (RF).
Dan Cantara
Cantara, who runs First Niagara's commercial services group, will emerge as a solid CEO candidate elsewhere if he is passed over for his own company's top job, one recruiter says.
Manuel Medina-Mora
The only knock against Medina-Mora, a Citigroup co-president in charge of global consumer banking, is that his resume is thin in commercial banking experience, a recruiter says. He does have international experience, running Citi's operations in Mexico.
Gordon Smith
Smith was named co-CEO of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan Chase last summer. He took over the full job in January when Todd Maclin was named chairman of the company's consumer businesses and commercial bank.
Dick Kovacevich
It might sound like a stretch, but one executive recruiter says the 69 year-old retired Wells Fargo CEO is an option for a large community bank in need a leader for two to three years while preparing for a sale. (Image: Bloomberg News)
