Deutsche Bank named a new leader for its 2,100-employee Jacksonville operation whose priorities include filling 180 open positions in its Southside campuses.
Brian Fay, with 30 years of industry experience and more than 25 years with the company, replaced Leslie Slover on Monday to become Head of Deutsche Bank in Jacksonville.
Slover returned to Deutsche Bank in New York as head of its Regulatory Management Group Americas. She came to Jacksonville in February 2014 when Deutsche Bank appointed her to serve in the new position of regional head of Jacksonville and Cary, North Carolina.
“We are focused on our continued growth,” said Fay, who also maintains the post as head of Technology and Operations that he has held since 2015.
Fay, 50, joined the Jacksonville office from New York in 2014 to run operations for the Corporate and Investment Bank and his role expanded.
Deutsche Bank’s Jacksonville operation is the Germany-based financial services company’s second largest U.S. presence after New York.
A critical location
Deutsche Bank considers its Jacksonville operation to be a microcosm of its New York office with every business and infrastructure division represented.
“There is no doubt the Jacksonville location for Deutsche Bank is a critical location from our global strategy perspective,” Fay said.
The company occupies two campuses along Gate Parkway.
It first moved in 2008 into the 200,000-square-foot, five-building Meridian Business Park at 5022 Gate Parkway, eventually filling that.
Last year it leased a 150,000-square-foot, three-story office building nearby at 5201 Gate Parkway.
Together, the two sites comprise 350,000 square feet of office space, making Deutsche Bank one of the city’s largest office tenants.
The Deutsche Bank campuses have capacity to reach a headcount of 2,800 in Jacksonville, although there is no timeframe for that goal as the bank hires as needs arise.
The current 180 openings are across the operations with a focus on building Deutsche Bank’s Anti-Financial Crime Compliance team and its Client & Data Services team.
Fay said he has been actively involved with the Client & Data Services team and is focusing on becoming more familiar with the compliance team.
Focus on Jacksonville
Slover also led Deutsche Bank’s Cary, North Carolina, operation. Fay said he will focus exclusively on Jacksonville.
His years with the New York operation provided him the opportunity to move functions from there to Jacksonville.
“I was pretty familiar with the local market. Seeing it firsthand, I’ve become quite a supporter,” he said.
Jacksonville’s market has been able to support most of Deutsche Bank’s growth areas the past several years, he said.
“The talent pool has been very good,” Fay said, crediting area schools and universities, especially the University of North Florida, for “quality graduates.”
“We’ve been quite satisfied not only with the graduates, but also the population that exists in the market for existing personnel,” he said.
“Overall, it’s a very positive story.”
Fay serves on the Business Advisory Council of the UNF Coggin College of Business.
He will continue being active in the community through the company’s employee resource groups such as multicultural, pride and next-generation groups.
“These are groups that help us grow,” he said.
Deutsche Bank also remains committed to its community contributions through social investments, cultural enhancements and partnerships with local organizations and educational initiatives.
Year-to-date, Deutsche Bank has filled 400 Jacksonville positions through new hires and internal moves. Fay said the 5201 Gate Parkway building provided capacity for expansion.
“That created some runway, some breathing room for us to grow further,” he said.
Fay said he continues to work with Deutsche Bank’s global operations for growth opportunities.
“The immediate view is let’s fill the 180 we have open,” he said.
The Anti-Financial Crime Compliance and the Client & Data Services teams “are areas that we feel we should grow in to protect the bank in a more effective manner and essentially ensure we are supporting our U.S. businesses and U.S. clients.”
Candidates can visit db.com/careers/index_e.html for job postings.
City model for company
On a visit in August 2016, Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan said he saw Jacksonville’s role as strong within the global bank’s footprint.
“This Jacksonville site is a role model for how we at Deutsche Bank should be running our business globally,” he said.
Cryan said under the leadership of Slover and Mike Drexler, the Jacksonville operation integrated well within the community. Drexler is Deutsche Bank’s head of Corporate & Investment Banking, Florida.
“All of our people statistics here are better than elsewhere. Job satisfaction is higher, retention rates are higher, mobility is great,” Cryan said.
Deutsche Bank opened in Jacksonville in 2008 with 100 employees. With four incentives packages from the city and state, the company has added thousands more.
Deutsche Bank does not run a retail bank in Jacksonville. Instead, the Southside operation has evolved from a single function operation center to a multidivisional regional office like a microcosm of the New York footprint.
Divisions in Jacksonville include global markets, which is the sales and trading business; corporate and investment banking, asset management, wealth management, the operations teams that support those businesses, global transaction banking, information technology, finance, cybersecurity, compliance, legal, group audit and anti-financial crime.
Fay’s expanded role in Jacksonville includes local oversight including all business line and infrastructure functions.
In his role as head of Technology and Operations, he also spends significant time leading Global Markets Operations in the U.S. and works closely with other business partners in the Americas.