Michael Pugh is stepping down as president and CEO of Carver Federal Savings Bank, one of the nation's most prominent Black banks, to helm a community development nonprofit group.
Pugh, whose eight-year tenure as chief executive of New York City-based Carver will end next month, will take over as CEO of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.
Carver announced that it will conduct a national search for Pugh's successor.
Pugh said in an interview Wednesday that resigning from Carver Bank marks a "bittersweet transition" after pouring his heart into the bank's mission of serving New York City's Black and Caribbean-American communities.
Pugh spoke shortly before the announcement of his hiring by the Local Initiatives Support Coalition. But he said that his next role will allow him to continue to support Carver's mission as well as those of similarly focused U.S. financial institutions.
"Working with others who share in the passion and mission to improve the overall financial health and wellness for everyday Americans across our country is going to be the most important thing I can take from this experience to duplicate it somewhere else," Pugh said.
Before joining Carver, Pugh held senior vice president positions at Capital One Financial and in Citizens Financial Group's retail banking division, where he oversaw the Michigan and Indiana markets.
In 2012, he became chief revenue officer at Carver, a minority depository institution founded in 1948. Three years later, he was named CEO, succeeding Deborah Wright, who had resigned to join the Ford Foundation.
When Pugh took leadership of the $723 million-asset bank, Carver was seeking to diversify its business strategy from one that concentrated on loans and deposits held by nonprofit and faith-based organizations to one that served a broader mix of small-business clients.
At the time, Carver Bank had
During his tenure as Carver's CEO, Pugh focused on digitization, innovation and thought leadership, said Nicole Elam, CEO of the National Bankers Association, a trade group that represents minority depository institutions.
"Michael's approach was for Carver Bank to become high-tech and high-touch," Elam said in an interview. "It is the only Black bank in New York City, so they really punch above their weight when it comes to serving their communities."
The Local Initiatives Support Coalition, which is also based in New York City, was founded by the Ford Foundation in 1979 and focuses on community development investment initiatives throughout the U.S., including work related to affordable housing, small businesses, education, health and safety. The group is certified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a community development financial institution.
"It takes someone with substantial financial and management acumen to effectively connect local programs to national strategies that advance economic opportunity and growth," Robert Rubin, who chairs the group's board of directors and previously served as U.S. Treasury Secretary, said in a press release. "Michael has demonstrated that capacity throughout his career."
