Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's co-head of wholesale banking, Geoff Belsher, is retiring from the bank at the end of September as part of a broad executive reorganization at the lender under new chief executive officer Victor Dodig.
Harry Culham, who shared the wholesale banking role with Mr. Belsher, was named group head of the division.
"I would like to thank Geoff for his contributions to our bank," said Mr. Dodig in a statement. "He has been an important part of our team and we wish him much success in the future."
The executive shuffle at CIBC went further, though, in what Mr. Dodig said was a move to emphasize three areas of strategic focus at the bank: innovating for the future, simplifying the bank and focusing on clients.
"I would call it an evolution in our organizational structure," he said in an interview. "There's still a great deal of continuity and elevation of strong talent."
David Williamson, group head of retail and business banking, will lead the bank's approach to innovation as CIBC strives to make banking easier for its clients amid a tremendous shift in the way consumers are using technology.
Mike Capatides, chief administrative officer and general counsel, will head-up efforts to simplify the bank in an effort to make it easier for clients to deal with people.
And Stephen Forbes was named chief commercial officer, overseeing efforts to build on customer satisfaction at CIBC, where the lender already saw some improvement in the latest satisfaction survey from JD Power.
Mr. Dodig said that the shift to a single head of wholesale banking fits in with these three areas in a number of ways: "What we are trying to do is deliver one CIBC to our clients," he said. "Having fewer points of co-ordination allows for us to do that in a better way."
As part of the reorganization, Laura Dottori-Attansio, chief risk officer, was given added responsibility for compliance and anti-money laundering. Kevin Patterson, senior vice president of technology and operations was handed responsibility for corporate security. Jon Hountalas, executive vice president, joins the executive committee overseeing CIBC's business and corporate banking. Christina Kramer, executive vice president of retail distribution and channel strategy, will also become responsible for the operations at President's Choice Financial, the branchless division. And Sandy Sharman was named chief human resources officer.
David Berman