Bank of America announced a raft of changes among its senior leadership Friday, including naming a new CFO and propelling three women to the bank’s management team.
The moves, shuffling more than a dozen executives, come less than two weeks after the bank announced two of its mainstays — Vice Chair Anne Finucane and Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag — are retiring at the end of the year.
The bank is promoting Alastair Borthwick, previously its president of global commercial banking, to CFO, effective in the fourth quarter, the bank said Friday. The bank’s current CFO, Paul Donofrio, will become a vice chairman overseeing sustainable finance. Borthwick had led commercial banking since 2012 and previously worked at Goldman Sachs.
Bank of America’s longtime chief technology and operations officer, Cathy Bessant, will become the bank’s vice chairman of global strategy, a position that bases her in Europe. Some of her previous role will be taken on by Aditya Bhasin, who was named chief technology and information officer.
Tom Scrivener will become Bank of America's chief operations executive, the bank announced Friday. Among other responsibilities he will oversee the bank's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness effort.
Bhasin and Scrivener are among five new additions to Bank of America’s senior management team. The other three — Holly O’Neill, Lauren Mogensen and Wendy Stewart — are women.
O’Neill will become the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender’s head of retail banking. She most recently led consumer client services at the bank.
O’Neill succeeds Steve Boland, who will become the chief administrative officer (CAO) and continue in his role as vice chair of the bank’s diversity and inclusion council.
Boland’s stint as CAO comes as the bank’s current chief administrative officer, Andrea Smith, a 34-year bank veteran, is retiring at the end of the year, the bank announced Friday.
Smith isn’t the only Bank of America executive retiring. The bank’s general counsel, David Leitch, is also calling it a career — albeit next year, the lender announced. Mogensen will step into the general counsel role.
“As we focus on the path ahead and what it requires, and individuals decide they are ready to transition and/or retire, we are able to promote and expand colleagues from inside the company resulting in new opportunities, smooth transitions, and continued momentum,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in a memo Friday. “Core to our long-term progress is our ongoing effort to develop generations of diverse leaders who are deeply experienced and energized to drive the company’s growth.”
Another of Bank of America’s longtime executives, Dean Athanasia, will take on more responsibility. In addition to the consumer and small-business units he leads, he’ll take on oversight of the commercial banking prong Borthwick is leaving behind.
Stewart, whom the bank named president of global commercial banking and a member of the senior management team, will report to Athanasia.
"These changes position the company with highly energized leaders who are committed to driving Responsible Growth through its second decade," Moynihan said in Friday's release, using the "responsible growth" moniker to label the era that has paralleled his tenure atop the bank.
The bank confirmed to the Financial Times on Friday that Moynihan “is planning to stay as chairman and CEO through this decade."
Bank of America is hardly the only large U.S. bank to shuffle its C-suite this year.
JPMorgan Chase in May promoted Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak to become co-heads of the bank’s consumer and community banking unit, putting two women in a position to potentially succeed Jamie Dimon as CEO.
Morgan Stanley, two days later, tapped Ted Pick and Andy Saperstein as co-presidents of the bank, setting up a potential two-person race to become CEO after James Gorman. Concurrently, the bank also named a new CFO and a co-head of strategy.
And Citi, in March, became the first U.S.-based Wall Street bank with a woman CEO, when Jane Fraser ascended to the top role.
Moynihan, too, isn't the only big-bank CEO who, despite title changes beneath him, intends to hang on at the top. JPMorgan, in giving Dimon a "special award" of 1.5 million, 10-year share options in July, reflected its board’s "desire" that he "continue to lead the Firm for a further significant number of years."
