Reporting alignment for CFO also moves to CEO

MINNEAPOLIS, October 30, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), parent company of U.S. Bank, announced today that Chief Financial Officer John Stern now will report directly to Chairman and CEO Andy Cecere, and shared a new leadership structure for its payments and money movement businesses under President Gunjan Kedia.

"An important part of achieving our company goals is ensuring we have a strong, aligned leadership team setting our strategy and helping us grow," said Cecere. "When leadership changes occur, we take our time to look inside and outside the company for talent, implement our succession plans, and adjust how our teams are structured if we see new opportunities to better meet business needs."

John Stern, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, will begin reporting to Chairman and CEO Andy Cecere directly. This change is effective immediately and reflects Stern’s leadership in the CFO role during the past year. Stern, 46, was named CFO in 2023. He previously served as president of the company’s global corporate trust and custody business and before that had been the corporate treasurer for nearly eight years.

Meanwhile, the company continues to prepare for Vice Chair of Payment Services Shailesh Kotwal’s previously announced retirement in the first half of next year and has decided to adjust its operating model to reflect the size, scale and strategic importance of the payments business to the company.

"We have worked closely with Shailesh and internal and external partners to fully understand the competitive landscape and our opportunities within the payments space," said Kedia. "We consistently heard that we have an attractive payments franchise, and we have a unique opportunity to leverage our strength to grow."

As a result, moving forward, the Payment Services business will be organized into two divisions: Payments: Merchant and Institutional (PMI) and Payments: Consumer and Small Business (PCS). The leaders of each team will report to Kedia in due course as the transition plan for Kotwal’s retirement is implemented.

Mark Runkel, 48, senior executive vice president and chief transformation officer, will lead the PMI business effective in early January. This team will include Merchant Payments Services, Corporate Payment and Treasury Solutions, and Payments Europe. Runkel has rich experience working closely with the company’s merchant and institutional payments businesses in his prior credit and risk roles. Runkel has been a member of the U.S. Bank team since 2002.