Santander US named Brian R. Yoshida chief legal officer and named Joe Abruzzo head of commercial banking for Santander Bank. Both Yoshida and Abruzzo will report to Tim Wennes, Santander U.S. CEO and country head, and Santander Bank president and CEO, and will be members of the Santander U.S. executive leadership team.
Yoshida will oversee all legal operations for Santander’s U.S. businesses. He will lead the Santander U.S. legal department, oversee legal risk management and provide legal advice and support for
Santander entities, businesses and functions across the United States. Yoshida will also oversee Santander U.S. government relations and public policy, regulatory relations, the duties of the corporate secretary and governance functions.
Yoshida joined Santander Bank after serving most recently as senior vice president and senior deputy general counsel of M&T Bank. During his tenure at M&T, Yoshida specialized in general corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, financial reporting, treasury/ALCO, bank regulatory, corporate governance and executive compensation. His experience at M&T also included overseeing litigation, labor and employment, corporate real estate, vendor contracts, commercial lending and leasing, wealth management, corporate trust, intellectual property and information security, and legal support for the corporate secretary’s office, investor and shareholders relations, corporate communications, the M&T Charitable Foundation and the M&T political action committee.
Abruzzo will oversee all aspects of commercial banking, including middle market, mid-corporate, ABL, government banking, treasury management, risk management, underwriting and portfolio management, and international solutions.
Abruzzo joined Santander Bank from HSBC, where he served in several leadership roles including head of the large corporate and mid-market segments in commercial banking and, most recently, as CEO of HSBC Private Banking Americas and chairman of the board for HSBC Private Bank International. He also spent 26 years at JP Morgan Chase in executive positions in both corporate and investment banking and commercial banking.
“I am pleased to welcome Brian and Joe to the Santander US team,” Wennes said. “Brian will easily step in to lead our legal, policy and governance teams as we continue to strengthen our regulatory framework, deepen and improve customer relationships, increase profitability and enhance our culture. Joe brings deep expertise delivering growth across all aspects of commercial banking, and will lead initiatives to leverage the strength of Santander’s global resources with our personalized commercial banking capabilities here in the US.
“These leaders bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Santander and will complement our dynamic leadership team. Their strategic vision for Santander in the U.S. will be of great value as we work to continue [to] execute on our strategy of growing the bank, leveraging the strengths of our U.S. businesses and providing outstanding service to our customers and communities.”
