Prime Highlights:
Susan Riel, CEO of EagleBank, will also become the new Board Chair, effective at the company’s annual meeting in May.
Pozez, current Board Chair since 2019, will not seek reelection after his term ends in May. He has been a board member since 2008.
Key Background:
Susan Riel, the current President and CEO of EagleBank, will assume the additional role of Board Chair, effective following the company’s annual meeting in May. This decision marks a significant leadership shift at Bethesda-based Eagle Bancorp Inc. The announcement, made through a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, comes as current Board Chair Norman Pozez, who has held the position since 2019, will not stand for reelection when his term concludes.
Pozez, who also serves as the Chairman and CEO of The Uniwest Companies, has been a member of Eagle’s board since 2008, making him the longest-tenured board member by nearly a decade. His appointment as Chair followed the unexpected retirement of Ron Paul, the bank’s founder, in 2019. Pozez, 69, will continue to vest in performance-based and time-based restricted stock units post his departure from the role. Riel, 74, has been with Eagle Bancorp since its inception in 1998, initially joining the bank’s board in 2017. In addition to her new role as Board Chair, she continues her leadership as the company’s President and CEO, roles she has held since 2019.
The change is part of a broader leadership restructuring, which also includes the promotion of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Eric Newell and EVP and Chief Real Estate Lending Officer Ryan Riel, Susan Riel’s son, to senior executive vice president roles. Both will take on new responsibilities and reporting structures, which are expected to be announced soon.
This leadership shift follows a series of other executive changes, including the hiring of a new Chief Risk Officer and Chief Credit Officer, as well as the recruitment of former Truist Financial Corp. executive Evelyn Lee as Chief Lending Officer for the commercial and industrial sector. In a separate matter, EagleBank is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania regarding potential violations of anti-money laundering controls under former CEO Ron Paul. The investigation pertains to the bank’s activities between 2011 and 2017 and its relationship with a former customer convicted of bank fraud in 2020. This marks the second federal inquiry into the bank’s practices under Paul’s leadership.
