1st Mariner enters next phase of leadership

1st Mariner Bank in Baltimore has appointed a new CEO.

Rob Kunisch, the bank’s president and chief operating officer, succeeds Jack Steil as CEO, the $965 million-asset bank said Monday in a press release. Steil will continue to serve as chairman, with a focus on developing commercial lenders and new business, the release said.

John J Coyle Jr

Kunisch and Steil were part of a team that helped recapitalize 1st Mariner after a heated bankruptcy auction in 2014. It lost $120 million from 2006 to 2015 and even warned at one point that it could fail.

The bank made roughly $1.1 million last year but reported a loss of $661,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

“In the three years since 1st Mariner’s recapitalization, we’ve made tremendous strides towards building the local, community bank we envisioned,” Steil said. “As part of our original strategic plan for rebuilding the bank, these changes are a natural transition and mark an important opportunity for all of our executive leaders to concentrate on targeted growth across all lines of business.”

Before joining 1^st Mariner, Kunisch was president of Maryland for Wilmington Trust. Gary Rever will assume the role of COO in addition to his current job as chief financial officer. Randy Jones will continue to serve as chief credit officer.