Toronto-Dominion Bank has chosen current finance chief Riaz Ahmed to be the next head of its investment dealer, setting in motion an executive shuffle that could reshape succession plans for the bank’s top ranks.
Bob Dorrance will step down as chief executive officer of TD Securities Inc. on Sept. 1 after 16 years in charge of the dealer and more than 40 years in banking. Mr. Ahmed will take his place after spending the past five years as TD’s chief financial officer. His 25-year career at TD started in 1996, when he joined as an investment banker.
Although Mr. Dorrance keeps a low public profile, he is a fixture of Canadian investment banking and has been a trusted counsellor to TD’s CEO, Bharat Masrani. Mr. Dorrance will stay on as chairman of TD Securities – a role that will allow him to keep up long-standing relationships with clients and continue to advise Mr. Masrani.
As TD Securities chief, Mr. Ahmed will be a contender to one day succeed Mr. Masrani as CEO. The two men are already close confidants.
“Technological progress and new market dynamics continue to transform the securities industry, and I am confident that Riaz and the TD Securities team will continue to build on our competitive advantages, serve our clients and chart future growth,” Mr. Masrani said in a statement on Thursday.
In the same statement, Mr. Masrani praised Mr. Dorrance. “Bob is an exceptional leader, whose insight and counsel are sought by CEOs, boards and market participants around the world,” he said.
Kelvin Tran, the bank’s executive vice-president of enterprise finance, will be promoted to CFO to succeed Mr. Ahmed, and will join TD’s senior executive team, reporting to Mr. Masrani.
TD Securities generates a relatively small proportion of the bank’s overall profits. It earned $383-million out of a total of $3.7-billion in net income in the most recent fiscal quarter. At times the division has struggled to keep pace with rivals that expanded more aggressively outside Canada. But TD has been making investments to extend its dealer’s influence in the United States, and the bank expects TD Securities to be an important source of growth that could diversify its earnings, which are heavily concentrated in retail banking across North America.
Two senior investment bankers who had been considered candidates to be Mr. Dorrance’s successor, Robbie Pryde and Moti Jungreis, were both given new titles as executive vice-chairs at TD Securities. TD also said Barbara Hooper, executive vice-president of corporate development, treasury and strategic sourcing, will join the bank’s senior executive team.
Earlier this month, Dave Kelly, TD’s head of wealth and financial planning, left the bank unexpectedly, setting off changes in its wealth-management arm. And in March, Manjit Singh – an executive once considered a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Ahmed as CFO – left TD to become CFO at insurer Sun Life Financial Inc.
The recent shuffle could foreshadow further changes in executive roles as the bank builds a clear succession plan for Mr. Masrani, who became CEO in late 2014.
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James Bradshaw
Andrew Willis