Maria Isabel Fernandez, who held a variety of executive positions at GE and GE Capital, will become head of ING Wholesale Banking, replacing Bill Connelly, who is retiring.

Connelly will step down from the management board banking as of November 1, 2016. Fernandez will join ING as a member of the management board banking on September , 2016 and will become head of Wholesale Banking as of November 1, 2016.

Fernandez joins ING from General Electric, where she currently is Global Commercial leader and head of Sales for the company, functionally responsible for GE’s 20,000+ global sales force. Her responsibilities include GE’s Global Commercial Shared Services, GE’s Commercial Council and all Corporate oversight teams for Sales. She is currently based in the U.S.

Prior to this role, she held a variety of leadership roles at GE and GE Capital, including CEO of Structured Finance Media & Technology, chief commercial officer of GE Capital EMEA, CEO of Global Bank Loans and most recently chief commercial officer of GE Capital. Before joining GE, Fernandez worked in commercial banking in roles ranging from leveraged lending and project finance to global relationship management.

Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING said, “Isabel Fernandez brings a wealth of experience in banking as well as in-depth knowledge of financing businesses in many of our key segments. Her experience in growth of new businesses and innovation will help us achieve the Think Forward strategy ambitions. Under Bill Connelly’s leadership ING Wholesale Banking strengthened as a premier global franchise and one of ING’s growth engines. Bill streamlined and further aligned the Wholesale Banking activities with the Think Forward strategy, focusing on primary relationships.”