Beth Johnson, vice chair and chief experience officer of Citizens Financial Group, will retire from her role March 3, following an 11-year tenure at the company.
Johnson, a key member of the bank’s executive committee, was instrumental in building the bank’s digital, data and marketing capabilities while focusing on customer needs, Citizens CEO Bruce Van Saun said in a press release Thursday.
“Her decision to retire from the bank to focus on other endeavors comes at a time when her portfolio has been taken to the next level and is performing exceptionally well,” Van Saun said in a statement.
Johnson oversaw customer experience and digital design, enterprise payments strategy, and the bank’s sustainability & impact programs. She was the first senior hire by Van Saun at Citizens and held various leadership positions during her tenure. Johnson also drove the company's environmental, social and governance initiatives to support the communities the lender served.
“Beth’s work in incubating critical capabilities within Citizens has helped lay a strong and lasting foundation that our highly experienced leadership team will build upon to accelerate growth, enhance product delivery and drive innovation,” Van Saun added.
The bank is not hiring a successor for the chief experience officer role. Under Johnson’s leadership, the enterprise experience organization has matured and is ready to be decentralized to align with the bank’s businesses and other functions, Rory Sheehan, the bank’s head of enterprise communications, told Banking Dive. Marketing, enterprise data, analytics, enterprise payments, and some support functions will report to consumer banking as part of the initiative.
Brendan Coughlin, vice chair and head of consumer banking, will oversee data, analytics, and marketing teams, while Don McCree, senior vice chair and head of commercial banking, will lead enterprise payments work, American Banker reported.
The bank will also create a senior executive role, which will be part of the executive committee, overseeing an expanded corporate strategy function. Sheehan noted that the newly minted role will report to CFO John Woods and will manage a broad portfolio that includes strategy, corporate development, customer experience, innovation, and sustainability.
The bank is considering internal and external candidates for the corporate strategy role, Sheehan said.
Though no one will succeed Johnson, the bank has been working on a “smooth and thoughtful transition over the past several months that will enable us to build on the progress and momentum” Johnson has built, Sheehan said in an email.
Johnson is a member of the board at Invesco and was a partner at Bain & Co. for about 15 years before joining Citizens in 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The Providence, Rhode Island-based lender said Johnson will focus on board service, advising companies, charitable work and other endeavors during her next chapter.
“I'm excited to do other things in my career,” Johnson told American Banker. “My plan is to have a portfolio of things to keep me interested and learning and having fun over this next phase.”
