Dive Brief:
- Valley National Bank has promoted interim finance chief Travis Lan to CFO, effective Monday, the bank said in a news release.
- The New Jersey-based lender is also replacing its president of commercial banking. Joseph V. Chillura will “transition out of” that role as of March 31 and leave the company June 30, according to a securities filing.
- M&T Bank veteran Gino Martocci will succeed Chillura at the end of this month. Most recently, Martocci was head of M&T’s commercial banking business for eight years, and had spent more than two decades at the lender in total, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Dive Insight:
Valley, a regional bank with about $62 billion in assets, has branches and commercial banking offices in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Alabama, California and Illinois.
The leadership appointments “reflect the bank's commitment to strengthening its leadership team and executing on its strategic priorities,” Valley said in the news release.
Lan has been Valley’s interim CFO since November, following an October disclosure that previous finance chief Michael Hagedorn would be leaving the bank.
When Lan was appointed interim CFO, Valley said it intended to consider both internal and external candidates in its search for a new CFO. With Lan’s promotion, his base salary “was increased by 25%, his target bonus opportunity was increased by 50%, and his target long-term incentive award was increased by 76%,” Monday’s filing said.
Lan, 40, joined the bank in February 2020 as head of corporate finance and M&A; in January 2024, he was appointed deputy chief financial officer.
Before he joined Valley, Lan spent about four years as a director in the investment banking department of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods; prior to that, he spent a decade as an equity research analyst covering community and regional banks, according to the filing.
In the commercial segment, Martocci will oversee the execution of strategic initiatives designed to grow Valley’s market presence across the bank’s footprint. Martocci’s experience and track record “are in direct alignment with the long-term vision we have for our commercial bank,” Valley CEO Ira Robbins said in the news release.
