Patrick Cronin, chief risk officer of BMO, will retire. The bank appointed Piyush Agrawal to succeed Cronin. Agrawal will join the bank as deputy chief risk officer on July 1 and after a transition period with Cronin, become chief risk officer on Nov. 1.
Agrawal will join BMO from Citigroup, where he held the role of chief risk officer for Citibank and global head of climate risk since 2021. He joined Citigroup in 2002 and has held additional roles with the company, including chief operating officer of Citibank, chief risk officer of Asia Pacific and head of corporate strategy.
“I’m delighted to welcome Piyush to BMO, and we are excited to have him join our leading risk management group,” Darryl White, CEO of BMO Financial Group, said. “I have been particularly impressed by his business acumen, customer focus, regulatory experience, along with his deep risk management capabilities and expertise on ESG and climate topics. His reputation for personal curiosity and lifelong learning, as well as developing high performing teams, precedes him. These behaviors are essential to a strong risk function and are at the core of BMO’s culture.”
Cronin first joined BMO in 1993 and held multiple leadership roles with BMO Capital Markets, including head of trading products, chief operating officer and CEO and group head, before his appointment as chief risk officer of BMO Financial Group in 2018. Cronin has also served as an advisory board member of Western University’s Ivey School of Business, as well as on the board of the Loran Scholars Foundation. He is past sector chair of the United Way Toronto and York Region Individual Giving Cabinet, as well as BMO’s own employee giving campaign.
“Throughout his career, Pat has made a significant impact across our bank,” White said. “He expertly steered our COVID-19 response and our risk function through the pandemic and the complex credit and market environment that has defined the past 24 months. He is a trusted advisor and one of the strongest bankers I have worked with. He has also shown a true commitment to the communities we serve, helping to grow the good for so many. I consider it a privilege to have delivered for our stakeholders alongside him for decades.”
