CIBC CEO Victor Dodig to retire in October

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The chief government of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is retiring in October after spending greater than a decade within the high put up.

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Victor Dodig shall be changed by Harry Culham, who at present heads CIBC’s capital markets section and would be the lender’s chief working officer from April onwards. Dodig will act as a particular adviser to Culham for an extra six months after leaving the put up.

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CEOs of Canadian banks are likely to retire after a decade and Dodig is the second Big Six CEO to retire this 12 months, following Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Bharat Masrani, who left his put up in February. Royal Bank of Canada’s Dave McKay is the one different CEO within the group with greater than 10 years of expertise on the high spot.

CIBC has been performing effectively, with a number of quarters of sturdy outcomes and improved profitability. Its share worth reached an all-time excessive in December. His whole pay elevated to $13.6 million final 12 months — second highest amongst the Big Six CEOs — from $11.2 million in 2023.

As such, some analysts anticipated him to stay within the high spot for an extended interval.

“We are stunned on the announcement,” Darko Mihelic, an analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, stated in a observe on Thursday. “We thought Victor would possibly stay as CEO a few years longer.”

Dodig, nonetheless, stated that it was “an honour” to steer CIBC for the previous decade.

“I’m very happy with all that we have now completed collectively and consider the time is correct handy the baton to Harry,” he stated in a launch on Thursday.

Dodig performed a key function in remodeling “CIBC into the fashionable, relationship-oriented financial institution it’s at the moment,” Kate Stevenson, chair of the financial institution’s board of administrators, stated within the launch, including he led the acquisition of Costco Wholesale Corp.’s Canadian bank card portfolio, which added greater than two million shoppers to the financial institution.

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He additionally led the acquisition of PrivateBancorp Inc. in 2016, which “considerably enhanced” CIBC’s footprint in business banking and wealth administration within the United States, Stevenson stated.

The son of a refugee, Dodig incessantly commented on Canada’s immigration sector. In an op-ed revealed within the Financial Post in 2022, he stated Canada’s model as a welcoming nation for immigrants was in danger attributable to challenges linked to the price of dwelling and the housing market.

Amidst declining public assist for newcomers, Dodig, at an occasion in November, referred to immigrants because the “lifeblood” of Canada and stated that they wanted assist from all corners as “individuals are turning a little bit bitter” on immigration.

Culham, who the financial institution stated has additionally led “key areas of CIBC’s enterprise and head workplace teams,” first joined the financial institution in Vancouver as an intern and took up senior banking roles in Europe and Asia at different corporations earlier than rejoining CIBC in 2008. He began main the financial institution’s international capital markets enterprise in 2015.

He has been answerable for “main and optimizing” companies corresponding to CIBC Caribbean, CIBC Mellon Trust Co. and the Strategic Client Office, the financial institution stated. He holds a level from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and is a Leslie Wong Fellow.

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Mihelic stated Culham’s “stable expertise” in capital markets could possibly be useful to the financial institution.

“We view his expertise with private business banking and wealth as comparatively restricted,” he stated.

But Dodig referred to as Culham a “confirmed chief,” whose monitor report and consistency positions him “completely to take the financial institution ahead.”

“We have reworked CIBC into a contemporary, relationship-oriented financial institution with clear momentum and powerful efficiency,” he stated in an emailed assertion. “The time is correct to move the baton to Harry … we have now a deep management bench, a extremely linked tradition and diversified platform, which, mixed with Harry’s management, place our financial institution for continued success.”

Analysts referred to the lender as a “modified financial institution,” 11 years after Dodig was erroneously launched as “sufferer” as a substitute of “Victor” at a convention in Montreal on the third day of his job.

He laughed off the verbal gaffe again then and continued along with his 30-minute presentation. As it wrapped up, and he was thanked by his first title, he joked that he had solely “began off as a sufferer.”

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com

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