The revolving door to the banking’s leadership ranks is spinning faster and faster, thanks to the pell-mell pace of change in the industry. To keep track, you can stay glued to your LinkedIn feed, but who has the time?
Welcome to the second edition Banking People Moves from The Financial Brand, our new monthly one-stop a record of the c-suite executives, marketing VPs and more moving around the industry — whether they’re arriving from other industries, moving from institution to another or getting promoted within their own bank or credit union.
We don’t claim to be comprehensive, but these are the moves that we think should be on your radar.
Did you miss our October Banking People Mover? Check it out.
Here are the November moves we’re highlighting this month:
- Jana Erny, new at Park Community Credit Union
- Howard Hammond, new at City National Bank
- Chris Doll, new at City National Bank
- Woody Windley, new at ValleyStar Credit Union
- Jin Gwak, new at Empower Federal Credit Union
- Michele Moore, new at John Hopkins Federal Credit Union
- Shane Courtney, new at First Oklahoma Bank
- Zach Eychaner, new at ELGA Credit Union
- Ilana Wolfe, promoted at Goldman Sachs
- Fereshteh Abbasi, promoted at Goldman Sachs
- Jenne Amato, promoted at Bethpage Federal Credit Union
- Darla Kolbas, promoted at Peninsula Credit Union
- Brian Dammeir, new at Plaid
- Vinay Mendonca, new at HSBC’s new fintech firm
- James R. Heslop, retiring from The Middlefield Banking Company
- John Dumas, retiring from DuPage Credit Union
New Banking Moves
Jana Erny
Institution: Park Community Credit Union (Louisville, Ky.)
New position: President and chief executive
Coming from: P1FCU (Lewiston, Idaho)
Old position: SVP of retail experience, lending and operations
What else to know about Erny’s new move: Park Community Credit Union, with $1.1 billion, recruited its new president and CEO from a whopping 2,103 miles away.
Jana Erny, who is in the middle of a relocation across the country from the Pacific Northwest to Louisville, Ky., says she never used to consider the chief executive position as an option for her. She credits her former boss, Carla Cicero, chief executive of Numerica Credit Union (based in Spokane, Wash.), for the inspiration.
Erny will replace former chief executive Jim Spradlin, who spent 13 years in the position out of his 29-year tenure at the credit union.
Howard Hammond
Institution: City National Bank (Los Angeles, Calif.)
New position: Chief executive officer
Coming from: Fifth Third Bank (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Old position: EVP, head of consumer banking
Inside Hammond’s new move: Howard Hammond was not the first one in the second half of 2023 to jump ship from Fifth Third Bank and migrate to City National, which boasts. Hammond and his former Fifth Third colleague Chris Doll — check him out below — moved to $96.1 billion City National in late November.
They follow Greg Carmichael, who left the helm of Fifth Third as its chief executive in 2022 and joined City National as its executive chair in September 2023.
Chris Doll
Institution: City National Bank (Los Angeles, Calif.)
New position: Chief financial officer
Coming from: Fifth Third Bank (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Old position: SVP, head of investor relations
What Doll said about the new position: ” I met a lot of wonderful people who are as passionate as I am about driving successful outcomes. We have something very special here.”
Woody Windley
Institution: ValleyStar Credit Union (Martinsville, Va.)
New position: Chief financial officer
Coming from: Roanoke Valley Community Credit Union (Roanoke, Va.)
Last position: President and chief executive
Inside Windley’s new move: While he has yet to announce his new position on LinkedIn, Woody Windley is the ValleyStar Credit Union’s new chief financial officer. He succeeds Wm Andrew Reynolds, who worked in the role for nearly nine years at the $676.5 million credit union.
Prior to relocating to ValleyStar, Windley sat at the helm of Roanoke Valley Community Credit Union for over 17 years as its president and chief executive.
Jin Gwak
Institution: Empower Federal Credit Union (Syracuse, N.Y.)
New position: Chief information officer
Coming from: AmeriCU Credit Union (Rome, N.Y.)
Old position: Chief digital and information officer
Inside Gwak’s new move: Before she was hired at $3.3 billion Empower Federal Credit Union in November, Gwak spent over a decade at AmeriCU Credit Union, where she held seven different roles, including chief digital and information officer, AVP of member tech solutions and more.
But, she hadn’t always worked in banking. Before her tenure at AmeriCU, Gwak spend six and a half years at Raymour & Flanigan as a telecommunication and network manager and seven years before that working on tech-based solutions at two technology firms.
Michele Moore
Institution: John Hopkins Federal Credit Union (Baltimore, Md.)
New position: Chief growth officer
Coming from: SECU Credit Union (Linthicum, Md.)
Old position: SVP, chief business development officer
What the job as chief growth officer at John Hopkins entails (according to Moore):
- Responsible for contributing to the development, implementation and execution of the credit union’s strategic goals and objectives.
- Direct accountability to leading the organizational marketing, product development, and community engagement functions.
- Responsible for contributing to the development, implementation and execution of the Credit Union’s strategic goals and objectives.
- Direct accountability to leading the organizational marketing, product development and community engagement functions.
Inside Moore’s new move: Michele Moore, after nearly six years as the chief business development officer at SECU Credit Union (advertised as the largest Maryland credit union), is $621.8 million John Hopkins Federal Credit Union’s new chief growth officer. Moore also spent six and a half years at Wells Fargo as the regional bank area president in the Baltimore area.
Shane Courtney
Institution: First Oklahoma Bank (Tulsa, Okla.)
New position: SVP of digital banking services
Coming from: Vast Bank (Tulsa, Okla.)
Old position: SVP and director of digital banking
Zach Eychaner
Institution: ELGA Credit Union (Grand Blanc, Mich.)
New position: VP of digital experience
Coming from: CFCU (Plymouth, Mich.)
Old position: SVP of digital experience
November Banking Promotions
Ilana Wolfe
Institution: Goldman Sachs
New position: Head of corporate board engagement
Old position: Head of strategic relationship management
Fereshteh Abbasi
Institution: Goldman Sachs
New position: Global head of portfolio construction and risk
Old position: Head of fixed income portfolio construction and risk
Jenna Amato
Institution: Bethpage Federal Credit Union
New position: Vice president of marketing
Old position: AVP of marketing
Darla Kolbas
Institution: Peninsula Credit Union (Shelton, Wash.)
New position: Director of lending
Old position: Lending operations manager
International Moves to Keep an Eye On
Brian Dammeir
Institution: Plaid (London, England)
New position: Head of Europe
Coming from: Adyen
Last position: Global head of Unified Commerce
What he has said about the new position: “When we think about Europe, it’s about how can we be more relevant globally, how can we find more and more use cases outside of our starting point in fintech. Right now, that’s really about expanding into account-to-account payments as well as into lending and traditional banking.”
Vinay Mendonca
Institution: HSBC
New position: Chief executive of new embedded finance fintech
Last position: Chief growth officer of global trade and receivable finance
What Mendonca said about the new move: “I am delighted to be leading this exciting fintech venture, which reflects HSBC’s vision to help businesses grow as they increasingly operate across e-commerce platforms. The JV’s technology will embed HSBC solutions into such venues so that customers can access financing when and where they need it.”
About the new firm: HSBC is launching in early 2024 a new embedded finance joint venture in transaction banking, which will be partly owned by HSBC (75%) and B2B fintech Tradeshift (25%). Mendonca joins the new firm along with Shehan Silva, currently HSBC’s head of digital solutions, who will be the chief operations officer for the new business.
Retirements on the Horizon
James R. Heslop
Institution: The Middlefield Banking Company (Middlefield, Ohio)
Retiring as: Chief executive
Inside Heslop’s retirement: After nearly 28 years at the Ohio institution, James R. Heslop is stepping down as chief executive, a role he held since 2022. Before that, he was the EVP and chief operating officer of the $1.8 billion bank. Heslop will be succeeded on January 1, 2024 by Ronald. L. Zimmerly, Jr.
John Dumas
Institution: DuPage Credit Union (Naperville, Illi.)
Retiring as: Chief financial officer
Inside Dumas’ retirement: John Dumas is stepping down as chief financial officer at DuPage Credit Union after over 26 years in the position. Dumas started at the credit union when he was still working on his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance at Elmhurst University. Dumas helped name his successor, Ryan Fisher, who will take over the position in early 2024.
What Heslop said about his successor: “I had seen Ryan speak at meetings on several occasions and was very impressed with his knowledge and passion. Then a few years ago, at a Credit Union National Association CFO Conference, I had the opportunity to sit next to him at a dinner and while we talked, I realized that he would be the perfect person to replace me some day.”