SVB Financial has hired a former bank supervisor to be its next chief risk officer.
Kim Olson, who started her career 30 years ago at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is now leading SVB's risk function and team, the Santa Clara, California-based company said in a press release. Olson joined SVB in December after serving five years at Tokyo's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., where she was in charge of risk at SMBC in the Americas, SVB said.
Olson, who is based in SVB's New York City office, has nine reports, a company spokesperson said Thursday in an email. She will report to Greg Becker, SVB's president and chief executive, as well as the chair of SVB's board of directors' risk committee, the spokesperson said.
She succeeds Laura Izurieta, who retired from SVB last year after a nearly six-year stint as the company's chief risk officer. Izurieta
In SVB's press release, Becker said that Olson's "deep and multi-faceted financial services experience … positions her perfectly to actively manage SVB's financial and non-financial risks and build and scale the firm's risk management capabilities through [its] next phase of growth."
Besides SMBC, Olson has also held risk management jobs at AIG, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank and Fitch, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also spent 10 years at the New York Fed, where she held increasingly senior roles in areas such as applications, policy and examinations.
SVB, the $213 billion-asset parent of Silicon Valley Bank, has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, catering to fast-growing startups and forming deep ties to the venture capital market. But last year balance sheet growth was
SVB and analysts alike are now waiting for venture capital investments to start flowing again. In the meantime, SVB executives have not yet provided 2023 guidance, although Chief Financial Officer Dan Beck told analysts last month that guidance should come in the first quarter.
