François Desjardins, who will officially take the reins as president and CEO of Montreal-based Laurentian Bank of Canada, on Nov. 1, has begun a major restructuring among senior management that includes the elimination of 15 positions.
The objective of the restructuring, which was announced internally this week, is to have a new team in place to carry out the strategic plan that Desjardins will be putting forward, according to François Laurin, who has been the bank’s chief financial officer since the beginning of August.
“The genesis of these changes took place when François Desjardins was named as CEO earlier this year,” Laurin says. “He undertook a strategic analysis and review, and it was decided that to better serve evolving client needs and to better respond to the technological changes that underpin the future of financial services, changes to the management structure were necessary.”
Laurentian Bank has not revealed the full range of the changes, and it indicates that it wants to explain them to the affected business units before they’re made public.
However, a few changes in the restructuring have been made public. Stéphane Therrien, former executive vice president of business services, is now executive vice president of personal and commercial banking, while Susan Kudzman, former senior vice president of human resources, is now responsible for risk management and corporate affairs.
In addition, Deborah Rose, president and CEO of B2B Bank, will now assume the role of chief information officer for Laurentian Bank.
As a result of these changes, Laurin says that Desjardins will have fewer direct reports at the executive vice president level, with the firm’s executive committee being cut back to six members from nine.
Desjardins will make the full details of Laurentian Bank’s new strategic plan known during the presentation of the bank’s fourth-quarter results in December, Laurin explains.