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Taking the Lead
Truist Financial Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced a new CEO this week. On Sept. 1, Michael Lyons, the 55-year-old CEO of Fiserv, will replace outgoing CEO William Rogers Jr., who will become executive chairman.
Many banks prefer to promote an internal candidate to the top spot, but Truist selected an outsider. Before running Fiserv, Lyons spent more than a decade as a senior executive at The PNC Financial Services Group, where he led the Pittsburgh bank’s business lines and strategic acquisitions, according to Truist. Opting for an outsider tends to indicate a board is looking for change, says Scott Petty, managing partner at the executive search firm Chartwell Partners.
In a release, Truist Lead Independent Director Thomas Skains called Lyons an “action-oriented leader” who will be “the right person to lead Truist's next chapter of growth."
Selecting a CEO to lead the organization is one of a bank board’s greatest responsibilities. Done well, it should be the result of careful deliberation. In a statement to Bank Director, a Truist spokesperson said the selection of Lyons as Truist’s next CEO was part of a “comprehensive and competitive search process” led by the board, which considered internal and external candidates.
That process takes time, says Petty. “Boards will spend roughly 200 hours of work making a CEO selection decision,” he says. Directors typically spend much of that time assessing internal candidates and, for some, launching an external search process that can take several months. Those candidates will need to be vetted by the board. “Start early, own the process,” says Petty. “Don’t cede that responsibility. … Get exposure to those candidates before the decision’s upon you.”
However, 20% of the board members and senior executives responding to Bank Director’s 2026 Compensation & Talent Survey, which is sponsored by Chartwell, say the primary responsibility for CEO succession falls on the outgoing CEO — rather than the board (45%) or a board-level committee (31%).
Boards that rely on the CEO to develop and assess candidates could find they don’t have someone that the board thinks should lead the bank. In the survey, respondents indicating the board leads the succession process are more confident that an identified successor would be prepared for the role. “Their No. 1 job is to make sure they have the right CEO in place,” Petty says.
• Emily McCormick, vice president of editorial & research for Bank Director
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