Recent reports reveal that Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) new Chief Security Officer CRO Kim Olson has resigned months after joining the bank.
Sources familiar with the news disclosed that Kim who joined SVB in January 2023 alongside the chief audit executive and one other executive are leaving the bank.
The departure comes just two weeks after about $72 billion in assets from the failed Bank was bought by First Citizens Bank. The recent departure is on top of a string of executive exits, including former CEO Greg Becker and CFO Daniel Beck who left the collapsed bank when it was taken over by regulators.
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Kim Olson was appointed as Silicon Valley Bank Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in January this year, after taking over from Laura Izurieta who stepped down from her role as CRO of SVB financial group in April 2022. Laura Izurieta walked away with over $7.1 million last year after she oversaw a bond-buying spree that left it vulnerable to a frenzied bank run that led to the collapse. She however managed to exit the bank unscathed before it collapsed.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Silicon Valley Bank stated that it approached Izurieta about terminating her job early last year after she sold $4,176,354 of her stock in the company on December 6, 2021. SVB is yet to comment on Olson’s departure, as employees at the newly combined institution do not yet know who the new Chief Risk Officer will be. There are claims that a potential successor is First Citizens’ CRO Lorie Rupp who has been in the role since 2017.
It is interesting to note that before Kim was appointed as CRO, Silicon Valley Bank was without a Chief Risk officer for eight months, a role required by federal regulations, which got people perplexed at how the bank managed risks in the interim period between the departure of one CRO and appointment of another, while it faced a difficult transition in the Venture Capital market the industry the bank services closely.
Analysts at Wall Street Journal (WSJ) stated that any strong Chief Risk Officer should have prevented Silicon Valley Bank from collapsing. It is however interesting to note that talent moves are sure to continue as a natural part of SVB’s transition to new ownership after HSBC Holdings plc’s U.S. unit hired dozens of Silicon Valley Bank bankers led by David Sabow, who most recently led the technology and healthcare banking segment for the California-based bank that collapsed last month.
HSBC USA said in a statement that the hiring will help the bank establish a dedicated banking practice focused on serving companies in technology and healthcare, as well as investors who support them. HSBC has initially assembled a team of more than 40 bankers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, and New York City as part of this initiative.