Monday, September 08, 2008

Wachovia Close to Naming a CFO

With Wachovia Corp. on the verge of naming a new CFO, The Wall Street Journal says the front-runner is Carlyle Group executive David Zwiener.

Wachovia, like most U.S. banks, is struggling to adapt to the housing downturn. Among other things, that led the bank to replace its chief executive a couple of months ago and oust its CFO soon afterward. Just this weekend, Washington Mutual - another big domestic bank that made a horribly timed bet on non-traditional mortgages – ousted its long-time chief executive. And of course, the Treasury has just announced it's taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and will replace those institutions' top executives. In an interesting coincidence, the man named to run Freddie Mac, David Moffett, is a senior advisor to Carlyle Group, the same private equity firm where Zwiener now works.

Zwiener's background, the WSJ observes,

includes a stint as president and chief operating officer of property and casualty operations at The Hartford Financial Services Group, as well as turns as executive vice president and chief financial officer at the same company. He also was executive vice president and chief financial officer at ITT Financial Corporation and senior vice president, treasurer and executive vice president-capital markets at Heller International Corporation.

Zwiener Is Top Pick As Wachovia CFO [WSJ]

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