First Republic Bank announced that Chairman and co-CEO James Herbert will take a medical leave of absence, prompting a slate of leadership changes.
Herbert, 77, will take a break from his executive position beginning on Jan. 1 as a result of recent medical advice concerning a coronary health issue. His leave of absence is expected to last for six months.
Herbert will also step down from the San Francisco company’s board of directors during that time. He is expected to be reappointed to the board when he returns.
In the meantime, co-CEO Hafize Gaye Erkan will take on additional responsibilities. And Chief Financial Officer Mike Roffler will become the company’s president on a permanent basis while continuing to serve as CFO for an interim period.
“As a longstanding shareholder, I have full confidence in Gaye alongside our terrific management team, the continued consistency and stability of our business model and, very importantly, the exceptional colleagues who put our culture and our clients first each day,” Herbert said in a press release.
Herbert founded First Republic Bank in 1985 and has been chairman and CEO ever since. The $173 billion-asset company was long
In July, First Republic extended Herbert’s contract for a fifth time, saying that he would become executive chairman after Dec. 31, 2022.
“We would not be surprised to see Ms. Erkan receive the nod to run the bank sooner than that,” Andrew Liesch, an analyst at Piper Sandler, said Monday in a note to investors.
Erkan has more than 20 years of finance and banking experience, including a stint at Goldman Sachs. She joined First Republic in 2014 as part of its executive management team, was named president in 2017 and was appointed to the board in 2019. (That year, Erkan, a native of Turkey, was
The company also said Monday that George G.C. Parker will serve as acting chairman of the board beginning in January. Parker has been a First Republic board member since 2003. He is a professor emeritus at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he has taught finance and banking for more than 30 years.
“Jim is now the third-longest serving CEO in the S&P 500,” Reynold Levy, the company’s lead independent director, said in the press release. “The board fully supports Jim’s decision to step away from the stress of day-to-day operations to focus on his health.”
