Flagstar, LendingClub and Toyota: Bankers on the move

August 8, 2018 11:54 AM

Bankers on the move: Competition is feeding executive hires

c781543a-00e7-479a-acc7-26efe5b9dcf6

Sergey Nivens - stock.adobe.com

Summer may traditionally be a time for vacation, but many financial institutions are using it as an opportunity to add new executives to their ranks.

In recent weeks, several banks and fintechs have expanded their teams. Some focused on leading new units while others sought to add leaders with unique skill sets.

From Florida to Portland, Ore., and everywhere in between, here's a roundup of key hires:

LendingClub picks outsider to oversee credit operations

Lending Club Executive Portraits

Noah Berger/Noah Berger

LendingClub has a new chief lending officer.

The San Francisco online lender said it had hired Ronnie Momen to oversee its credit strategy, including credit data use, analytics and innovative products. Momen will report directly to Steve Allocca, LendingClub's president.

Momen previously was chief credit officer at the fintech company GreenSky. He was also chief credit officer for consumer unsecured products at Wells Fargo, where he was in charge of building risk capabilities for the company's card and private-label products.

Read more here.

KeyCorp exec bolts for Toyota

Toyota Financial Services in Plano, Texas, has snagged a KeyCorp executive to lead its technology efforts.

Toyota’s finance and insurance arm said Vipin Gupta has joined as its chief information officer. He will guide the company’s information technology strategy and operations, and coordinate its technology efforts with Toyota Motor North America and other global Toyota affiliates.

Gupta previously served as chief information officer for the Key Community Bank unit of the $135 billion-asset KeyCorp. He drove digital innovation and worked on fintech partnerships in that role.

Read more here.

Umpqua names leadership for innovation unit

Lara Swimmer

The new leaders of the innovation unit at Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., are no strangers to each other, having worked together previously at two data and analytics firms.

Shawn Ahmed has been named president and CEO of Umpqua’s Pivotus, while Troy Molander is its new chief technology officer, the $26 billion-asset Umpqua said.

Ahmed succeeds Oren Goldschmidt, who served as the president of Pivotus until March, and Ray Davis, who was CEO of Pivotus until his retirement in December. In 2016, Davis stepped aside from his longtime role as CEO of Umpqua but stayed on as CEO of Pivotus, which he founded.

Read more here.

WSFS in Delaware sets stage for next CEO

WSFS Financial in Wilmington, Del., will have a new leader next year.

Rodger Levenson will become president and CEO of the $7 billion-asset company on Jan. 1, WSFS said in mid-July. Levenson will succeed Mark Turner (pictured), who will remain executive chairman of Delaware’s largest locally headquartered bank.

Levenson, 57, has been the company's chief operating officer since last August, when he was promoted from chief corporate development officer. Levenson has also served as its interim chief financial officer and chief commercial banking. He joined the company in 2006 after working for Citizens Bank and CoreStates Financial.

Read more here.

Flagstar nabs Regions exec for retail expansion

Flagstar Bank has sought to reduce its reliance on national mortgage banking and become more commercially focused.

To oversee its expanding retail banking business, the Troy, Mich.-based bank tapped a a Regions Bank executive, Ryan Goldberg.

Goldberg, who was head of priority banking and branch small business at Regions, will be responsible for branch banking, consumer finance, national business banking and investment and insurance services divisions, the $17.7 billion-asset company said.

Read more here.

Mich. bank bolsters mortgage division by recruiting rivals

Level One Bank in Farmington Hills, Mich., is doubling the size of its mortgage division by hiring a team of mortgage bankers from MB Financial.

The new hires include Joe Skaisgir, Troy Fairbanks and Rob Laney and should strengthen Level One’s presence in southeast Michigan, the $1.3 billion-asset company said.

The $20.1 billion-asset MB Financial said in April that it was shutting down its national mortgage business due to heavy competition and low margins.

Read more here.

New execs for recapitalized Florida bank

Carl Chaney is Beach Community Bank's new executive chairman, one of several changes at the Fort Walton Beach, Fla., bank.

The $475 million-asset bank said its holding company had sold it to an unnamed group of investors through a bankruptcy process. The investors infused $100 million into Beach Community as part of a recapitalization led by Hovde Group.

Chaney once served as CEO of Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss. He was also hired to try to salvage First NBC Bank in New Orleans before it failed last year. The bank also announced that Chip Reeves had become its president and CEO. Reeves previously was president and chief operating officer at Bank of the Cascades.

Read more here.

First Hawaiian names new top finance exec

First Hawaiian named Ravi Mallela as chief financial officer and treasurer. Ravi Mallela will also serve as treasurer starting in September, the $20.2 billion-asset company said.

Mallela was the head of finance and treasury at First Republic, where he oversaw corporate treasury, financial planning and analysis, investment operations and monitoring, cash management, and capital and liquidity stress testing.

Read more here.

Colony Bankcorp finds new leadership close to home

T. Heath Fountain, president and CEO of Colony Bank.

For its new president and CEO, Colony Bankcorp in Fitzgerald, Ga., found the perfect candidate — at a neighboring bank.

T. Heath Fountain joins from Planters First Bank in Cordele, Ga., where he was president and CEO. At Colony, Fountain succeeds Edward Loomis Jr., who is retiring, according to the $1.2 billion-asset company.

Fountain also was the chief financial officer of Heritage Financial Group before its sale to Renasant Bank in 2015.

Read more here.

Regions insider to lead new office of community affairs

Regions Financial has tapped one of its regional presidents to head up its new office of community affairs.

The Birmingham, Ala., company said in a press release that it appointed Leroy Abrahams, the former area president for north-central Alabama, to lead its community affairs department, a newly created division that integrates the bank’s nonprofit entity Regions Financial Corporation Foundation with several company units related to community development.

Read more here.

Bank Leumi selects credit exec to launch asset-based lending group

Pedestrians walk under Bank of Leumi sign

Pedestrians pass the central branch of Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008. Gabriel Capital LP, the hedge fund run by Ezra Merkin, may sell its 5 percent stake in the bank, the countryÕs largest lender by market value. Photographer: Ahikam Seri/Bloomberg News

AHIKAM SERI/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Bank Leumi USA in New York has added an asset-based lending division.

The $7 billion-asset bank, a unit of Leumi Group in Israel, said it had hired Mark Fagnani, an executive with commercial lending and credit experience, to lead the new group. Fagnani will be based in New York.

Read more here.