News about Silicon Valley Bank’s unexpected demise feels like it’s everywhere. But newly appointed CEO Tim Mayopoulos, who was tasked with leading the new FDIC-backed Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, is trying to change the narrative and instill confidence in the firm moving forward.
So, who is he?
Mayopoulos received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and went on to graduate from New York University’s law school in 1984. He started his career clerking for a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York before practicing law as an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell for eight years. He continued to work at various firms before joining Credit Suisse in November 2000.
Mayopoulos also did stints at Deutsche Bank and Bank of America before notably joining government-sponsored Fannie Mae in 2009, as it was navigating the throes of the financial crisis. Mayopoulos worked his way up to eventually lead the mortgage company until late 2018.
Prior to being tapped to lead the newly created Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, Mayopoulos served as the president of Blend, which is a digital lending company focused on mortgages, consumer loans, and deposit accounts.
Now, Mayopoulos’s job is to bring anxious customers back to the banking system that resulted in chaos over the past week. The CEO wasted no time, sending out emails to customers introducing himself and explaining that it was “open for business.”
“We are actively opening new accounts of all sizes and making new loans,” he wrote in one email to a customer viewed by Fast Company.
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