RBC Capital Markets head of U.S. bank equity strategy Gerard Cassidy and The Fitz-Gerald Group principal Keith Fitz-Gerald discuss the significance of Silicon Valley Bank imploding on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
The man at the helm of Silicon Valley Bank as operations came to an abrupt halt on Friday is a 30-year veteran of the firm.
Greg Becker started with the company as a loan officer and rose through the ranks during the dotcom bubble before he later steered the lender in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.
He became president and CEO of SVB Financial Group in 2011.
The company’s operations abruptly came to a halt on Friday as California banking regulators shut the company in what became the largest bank failure since the financial crisis.
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Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker
Becker had personally called clients 24 hours earlier to assure them their money with the bank was safe.
In a message to employees on Friday, Becker acknowledged the “incredibly difficult” 48 hours leading up to the bank’s collapse.
Becker was a member of the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
A customer stands outside a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023, in Santa Clara, California. Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday morning by California regulators and was put in control of the U.S. Federal Deposi (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
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He left the board effective immediately, according to a spokesman for the regional Fed bank.
Becker graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in business, according to Silicon Valley Bank’s website.
He reportedly worked at another bank and followed his manager to SVB.
Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, California. (Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Before becoming president and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker co-founded SVB Capital, the company’s investment arm.
Reuters contributed to this report.
