Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM-T is revamping its top executive team for the second time this year as a key lieutenant to chief executive officer Victor Dodig steps back from day-to-day operations, further setting the roster of contenders to be the bank’s next CEO.
Jon Hountalas will become CIBC’s vice-chair of North American banking, handing off his daily duties as group head of Canadian banking – a sprawling role in which he has overseen retail and commercial banking as well as wealth management. A banking veteran with almost 40 years of experience, he will remain on the bank’s executive committee, reporting to Mr. Dodig.
Susan Rimmer will be named group head of commercial banking and wealth, joining the top executive team after two years as global head of corporate and investment banking. Harry Culham keeps his current job as head of capital markets and adds oversight of the bank’s asset management arm, which manages about $300-billion of assets and has a mandate to get bigger. And Christian Exshaw, the bank’s head of global markets, will be named deputy head of capital markets, taking over the corporate and investment banking role vacated by Ms. Rimmer.
“The logic is continual, natural evolution of strengthening our talent bench and making sure the best leaders are in the best jobs,” Mr. Dodig said in an interview. “Everybody gets a little more to do or something new to do to drive the strategic agenda of the bank going forward.”
The changes take effect Nov. 1, the start of CIBC’s next fiscal year.
CIBC has performed well, with its share price up almost 25 per cent since the start of 2024, and analysts have praised the bank for its consistent performance.
CIBC is also breaking up its direct financial services (DFS) unit, an amalgamation of three digitally focused initiatives that was led by Mr. Exshaw. The bank’s low-cost Simplii Financial subsidiary will report to Hratch Panossian, who has led personal and business banking since CIBC last shuffled its senior leaders in April. The bank’s digital brokerage, Investor’s Edge, will report to Ms. Rimmer in wealth management, while the unit focused on digital foreign exchange and payments, the Alternative Solutions Group, will stay within capital markets.
Parts of the DFS business were not an obvious fit in capital markets but were put there to instill a “challenger kind of mindset,” Mr. Dodig said. Now, the imperative is to have all consumer banking in one place, with a “co-ordinated strategy to address those clients who want digital … and are cost-conscious.”
Some of the executives with new or expanded roles are widely considered to be leading contenders to be CIBC’s next CEO. Mr. Culham has made a steady performer of the typically volatile capital markets unit. Mr. Panossian is a former CFO gaining experience in the key consumer banking division. Shawn Beber is keeping his current job leading CIBC’s business in the United States, where he is shifting away from troubled commercial real estate to focus more on private banking and wealth. And Ms. Rimmer’s move to the executive committee, and to lead one of the bank’s major businesses, also puts her in the running.
Mr. Dodig is approaching 10 years as CEO but said there is no timeline for succession. “I continue as the CEO,” he said. “When the board and I feel that the time is right, we have strong and capable leaders who have broad experience.”