New York Community Bancorp, the parent company of Flagstar Bank, hired Craig Gifford as senior executive vice president and CFO; Bao Nguyen as senior executive vice president, general counsel and chief of staff; Scott Shepherd as senior executive vice president and head of commercial real estate lending; and James Simons as executive vice president and special advisor to the CEO.

“We are thrilled to welcome Craig, Bao, Scott and James to our executive team,” Joseph Otting, president and CEO of New York Community Bancorp, said. “Their collective expertise and deep industry knowledge will be instrumental in driving our strategic initiatives forward and solidifying our position as a leading regional bank. These appointments underscore New York Community Bancorp, Inc.’s commitment to fostering a culture of excellence, innovation and integrity as it continues to deliver value to shareholders and service to our customers.”

Gifford has more than 30 years of banking experience, most recently as executive vice president of enterprise operations with U.S. Bancorp, where he led all physical operations, including the distribution strategy for the bank’s branch and ATM network. Previously, he served as U.S. Bancorp’s corporate controller, and prior to that, as chief accounting officer and corporate controller for Guaranty Financial Group, following a 13-year career in the financial services group of Ernst and Young.

Nguyen has more than 15 years of experience as a financial services attorney. Most recently he served as a partner for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he advised global and regional financial institutions, fintech and digital asset companies and private equity firms on the regulatory aspects of complex transactions, charters, compliance matters and enforcement issues. Prior to joining Skadden, he held senior positions with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), including as acting Chief counsel and, most recently, as principal deputy chief counsel. During his time at the OCC, he oversaw policy decisions, rulemaking, transaction reviews and enforcement matters.

Earlier in his career, Nguyen served as Senior Counsel at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and as a banking fellow in the U.S. Senate, negotiating reforms to the U.S. regulatory framework as part of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Shepherd is a senior executive with a more than 20-year track record building and leading teams in commercial real estate, including lending, debt restructuring and workouts, financing and investing in commercial real estate. Most recently, he served as managing director of The Ruth Group, a commercial real estate deal sponsor and operator, where he focused on secured debt financing to acquire and refinance office and industrial conversion properties and restructurings. Prior to that, he founded Archbell Capital, a commercial real estate bridge lender focused on institutional quality sponsors across property types.

Shepherd also spent six years at OneWest Bank as head of the commercial real estate group. While there, he launched a $1 billion annual CRE lending business that originated more than $3.5 billion in loan commitments and led workouts of $2 billion of acquired loans. He started his real estate finance career at Goldman Sachs, where he was an investment banker for 10 years.

In the newly created role of special advisor to the CEO, Simons will advise on credit administration, portfolio management and lending projects. He has more than 45 years of banking experience, the last 20 of those serving as senior credit executive/chief credit officer for First Citizens Bank (formerly OneWest Bank and CIT Bank), Associated Bank, Guaranty Bancorp and U.S. Bancorp. In these positions, he was responsible for a variety of credit functions and problem loan management, and served as the primary business line approver for commercial real estate, middle-market lending, builder finance, private banking and asset-based lending. He also has bank turnaround and loan workout experience, as well as bank regulator experience with the OCC and Resolution Trust Company.