CIBC CEO Victor Dodig to retire this fall, to be succeeded by Harry Culham

The Toronto-based bank announced a succession plan Thursday that will see Dodig end his tenure on Oct. 31. He will be replaced by Harry Culham, CIBC’s capital markets head, who will become chief operating officer on April 1 ahead of his big promotion later in the year.

“Together, we have built a strong foundation for the future, with a clear and consistent strategy focused on client relationships, financial strength, innovation, sustainability and genuine community engagement,” Dodig said in a press release.

“I am very proud of all that we have accomplished together and believe the time is right to hand the baton to Harry (Culham).”

Dodig’s departure marks the end of an upbeat chapter for the bank, which juiced its balance sheet, orchestrated its largest-ever acquisition and took increasing advantage of strength in the U.S. market over the last decade.

Under Dodig’s leadership, the bank scooped up Chicago-based lender PrivateBancorp, Inc. for US$5 billion in 2017 in a bid to generate a quarter of its profits from south of the border in the long term. At the time, about 5% of its profits originated in the U.S., primarily from its wealth management and capital markets operations.

The bank wanted a bigger piece of the U.S. because the country’s economy was growing, interest rates rising and Donald Trump, then in his first stint at U.S. president, promised reduced taxes and deregulation.

Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan now credits that deal and Dodig’s U.S. focus with doubling CIBC’s revenues and shifting the portion attributable to Canada from more than 85% to less than 70%.

“During that time, CIBC became much more diversified, reducing the bank’s reliance upon Canada and traditional banking activities,” Shanahan said in a note to investors.

Another hallmark of Dodig’s tenure was his time spent developing CIBC’s capital markets and wealth management businesses, which Shanahan said now account for more than one-third of revenues and income.

Dodig’s successor has spent a decade at the helm of CIBC’s global capital markets business but also held senior banking roles in Europe and Asia before rejoining CIBC in 2008. Culham got his start at the bank many years earlier, when he was an intern in Vancouver and participated in one of CIBC’s first ever graduate programs.

When he steps into Dodig’s job, he will have to help the bank navigate a trade war that has broken out between Canada and the U.S. and stands to upend both countries’ economies. Tensions that Trump, now in his second stretch as president, sparked between the once-tight allies have led to a drop in the value of the loonie and sent markets plunging.

CIBC, however, has a hearty customer base to lean on to weather the conditions because Dodig led the bank to acquire Costco’s Canadian credit-card business in 2022, when the country was still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The deal came with $3 billion in outstanding balances and CIBC board chair Kate Stevenson said Thursday that it added more than two million clients to the bank, including many affluent and business customers.

She sees the deal, in addition to “transformative” investments in digital banking and technology, as ways Dodig modernized the bank and made it more “relationship-oriented.”

As the bank prepares to transition its leadership, all of its operating businesses will report to Culham, while CIBC’s corporate functions will continue to fall under Dodig’s purview until his retirement.

Once he retires, Dodig will continue on as a special adviser to Culham and the board until April 30, 2026.

CIBC’s handover comes as one of its other competitors has also shuffled its executive ranks.

Raymond Chun stepped into the top job at TD Bank on Feb. 1, on the heels of anti-money laundering failures in the bank’s U.S. business that cast a shadow over the end of CEO Bharat Masrani’s tenure.

Chun was due to take over on April 10, but his start date was moved up, when the bank signalled in January that it was looking to put the past behind it with an accelerated succession plan.

— with files from Sammy Hudes and Ian Bickis in Toronto.