Silicon Valley Bank’s Ousted CEO Cashed in Weeks Ago. Now There’s a New Sheriff In Town, and He’s No Stranger to a Crisis

By temporary On Mar 16, 2023 31

All eyes are on Silicon Valley Bank after its spectacular crash, the second-largest in U.S. banking history. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the bank on Friday and moved to replace its CEO, Greg Becker, who had served in the role since 2011.

The FDIC appointed Tim Mayopoulos as CEO of the newly renamed Silicon Valley Bridge Bank on Monday. He got to work quickly, urging clients to bring their money back to the bank during a Zoom call on Wednesday, according to CNBC.

Keep scrolling for more details on the CEOs.

What happened to former SVB CEO Greg Becker?

Greg Becker started at Silicon Valley Bank as a loan officer and was with the company for nearly three decades. He’s credited with steering the bank through the 2008 financial crisis and was appointed CEO in 2011, according to Reuters.

Before the bank’s collapse, he was viewed as a “champion of the innovation economy,” as he was referred to in a since-deleted profile on the Silicon Valley Bank website.

Becker has been scrutinized for reportedly selling $3.6 million in company stock just two weeks before the collapse, per Bloomberg. The sale was made under a trading plan he filed in January.

Becker’s 2022 compensation was $9.9 million, per the Wall Street Journal. SVB’s compensation committee noted in a filing that his 2022 bonus — and that of SVB CFO Daniel Beck — was reduced to hold the executives accountable “for balance sheet pressures stemming from declining deposits and overall market environment.”

Before his departure, Becker apologized to employees in a video message sent Friday. A Fed spokesperson also announced Friday that Becker was no longer on the board of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, per Bloomberg.

Becker has sold SVB stock worth nearly $30 million over the past two years, per CNBC.

Who is SVB’s new CEO Tim Mayopoulos?

The FDIC appointed banking veteran Tim Mayopoulos to replace Becker as SVB CEO.

Mayopoulos was Bank of America’s general counsel during the 2008 financial crisis and then served as president and CEO of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae, per the New York Times.

According to Time, Mayopoulos is a graduate of Cornell University and the New York University School of Law. In the 1990s he was part of the team that investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate dealings, and his resume also includes time at Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Before taking on the CEO role at SVB, Mayopoulos was president of Blend, a cloud-based software company for mortgages and consumer banking.

Mayopoulos sent a memo to clients on his first day as CEO.

“I look forward to getting to know the clients of Silicon Valley Bank,” he wrote Monday, per Insider. “I come to this role with humility. I also come to this role with experience in these kinds of situations.”