Atlantic Union Bankshares has handed off CEO John Asbury’s day-to-day responsibilities to the president of its banking unit,
The Richmond, Virginia, company has given Tedesco the additional title of chief operating officer of its $20.1 billion-asset bank subsidiary, Atlantic Union Bank. Tedesco, who had served as president since her arrival in September 2018, is now responsible for all technology and back-office operations.
“The bank, as the customer experiences it, is really now under Maria,” Asbury said in an interview. “All of the business units we refer to now as the operating group” report to Tedesco. “It really further empowers her, and I think it’s a good organizational design for this company.”
Tedesco has managed client-facing business lines since she arrived at Atlantic Union and calls herself the bank's "unofficial chief customer officer." She plans to keep customer service at the center of her expanded responsibilities.
“I view this as a 360-degree approach to the customers of the company,” Tedesco said. “Now, when we talk about projects, when we talk about going to market, when we talk about servicing customers, we’re really having a conversation from the back office all the way to the front. … We want to bring the whole bank to every customer.”
Analyst Laurie Havener Hunsicker, who covers Atlantic Union for Compass Point, noted Tedesco’s promotion in a research note last week, adding that she is “impressed with Atlantic Union’s management team.”
Atlantic Union last week reported full-year 2021 earnings of $252 million, up about 65% year over year. The results prompted Hunsicker to raise her forecast for 2022 by 24 cents per share to $2.79.
According to Asbury, who has been Atlantic Union’s CEO since January 2017, giving Tedesco full control of the organization should prevent the technology and back-office functions from becoming siloed.
“We do not want a seam to appear, so we needed to draw these organizations together because they are absolutely positively impacting the customer experience,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure the client-centric operating group is running like a top.”
With many of his responsibilities handed over to Tedesco, Asbury said he can focus on Atlantic Union’s investments in fintech firms. Atlantic Union has been investing in fintech funds for several years and expects to add to its position in 2022. The relationships it has developed have helped it improve its digital-banking offerings and could help it identify other opportunities, according to Asbury.
“The rise of financial technology is critically important to the future of this company,” the CEO said.
In a conference call with analysts last week, Asbury said that he continues to evaluate M&A opportunities, too, but added that he would prefer to focus on internal projects in the near term and push deal consideration to the second half of 2022.
“We don't always have the opportunity to control timing, but I would really like to see us get through the winter,” Asbury said. “We’re always busy inside the company.”
Before joining Atlantic Union, Tedesco served two years as chief operating officer for retail at BMO Harris Bank in Chicago. While the $167 billion-asset Bank of Montreal subsidiary is a much larger operation than Atlantic Union, Tedesco said the scope of her responsibilities is actually much wider now.
“I certainly wasn’t running the business lines I’m running now,” Tedesco said.
