The BBVA Board of Directors approved the succession plan for the company’s chief executive officer, designating current CEO of BBVA Compass and U.S. Country Manager Onur Genç to succeed Carlos Torres Vila as Group CEO, effective December 31, 2018.
Vila will in turn replace Francisco González as Group executive chairman, once the relevant authorizations have been obtained.
“Onur has had an extremely positive impact in our operations in the U.S. and in Turkey, and now that contribution will be extended to the whole Group,” said Vila. “The Board has selected Onur as he is the ideal CEO to continue pushing forward our strategy and boosting our transformation throughout all our franchises, generating value for all our stakeholders: shareholders, employees, customers and the overall society.”
Genç worked at McKinsey & Company for 13 years, starting in 1999, where he eventually rose to senior partner and manager of the Turkish office. He joined Garanti in 2012 as executive vice president for retail banking and in 2015 was named deputy CEO of the Turkish lender, assuming wholesale banking responsibilities. Since January 2017, Genç served as BBVA Compass CEO, where he achieved significant progress, not only in the financial results of the franchise, but also on the development and improvement of digital capabilities, customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
“I want to thank the Board for their trust in me to take on this great challenge,” said Genç. “I deeply value our purpose and values, and I am very excited to be part of BBVA’s transformation project.”
“BBVA as a whole is devoted to transformation for the benefit of the customer,” said Francisco González. “The team is the best guarantee of the future success of the Group.”
