February’s banner hires brought retirement and investment firm TIAA a new chief executive, and City National Bank lost its innovation lead to data warehouse provider Snowflake. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs lost its consumer banking heads to Walmart’s fintech startup, but hired a former Stripe payments executive to fill some of the leadership gaps in that banking unit.
Here are the most notable February hires in fintech and banking:

TIAA nabs Chase’s Duckett for CEO
JPMorgan Chase will need to find a new CEO of consumer banking as Thasunda Brown Duckett plans to depart the bank for the CEO role at the $1.3 trillion TIAA. Duckett is set to succeed Roger Ferguson Jr., who will remain in the position until May 1.The New York-based TIAA specializes in retirement and investment solutions.
Duckett has since 2016 been the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, leading a business unit with more than $600 billion of deposits and 40,000 employees, according to a TIAA release. At Chase, Duckett was a technology force, driving the adoption of digital engagement at Chase, winning first place in two categories of J.D. Power’s customer satisfaction rankings for best mobile app and most visited online portal. Duckett also encouraged development of technologies and tools to build financial health and wealth.
JPMorgan Chase did not immediately name Duckett’s replacement, according to a Reuters report.
Goldman Sachs appoints Bhatia as Walmart poaches execs
Goldman Sachs tussled with some of the country’s biggest retailers and fintechs in February, hiring a former Stripe payment executive and losing the leaders of its consumer business to Walmart’s up-and-coming fintech startup.
The Wall Street firm, with more than $735 billion in assets under management, has appointed Swati Bhatia to lead its direct-to-consumer banking business. Most recently, Bhatia was the chief payments risk officer at digital payments company Stripe for nearly two years. Prior to Stripe, Bhatia worked at PayPal for eight years, and worked across several different roles including risk, experience and product simplification.
Walmart poached two Goldman Sachs consumer banking executives, according to several published reports. Omer Ismail, head of Goldman’s consumer bank, and David Stark, a partner who played a crucial role in the Goldman-backed Apple Card, will lead Walmart’s new fintech startup in a partnership with investment firm Ribbit Capital that was announced last month.
Schleicher departs City National Bank for Snowflake
Craig Schleicher has departed the $75 billion City National Bank, where he led technology efforts across several innovation roles, to pursue a senior sales position at Snowflake, a data and cloud platform based in San Mateo, Calif. Schleicher will serve has the senior sales strategy and planning manager and will aim to accelerate Snowflake’s revenue growth by planning for and enabling the company’s sales organization, according to a LinkedIn post. Snowflake has a market cap of $76.5 billion.
Schleicher joined City National Bank in 2018, and worked his way up the ranks from vice president and innovation lead to senior vice president of innovation, digital efficiency and capital. His work focused on how technology could improve the bank’s customer and employee experiences and enable new business opportunities. City National has not yet named a replacement, according to a company spokesperson.
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