© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: SVB President and CEO Greg Becker speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2022 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake
By Hannah Lang
(Reuters) – Greg Becker, the chief executive who chaired the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, joined the company three decades ago as a loan officer.
The executive got his start during the dot-com bubble and later led the startup-focused lender in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. He became chairman and chief executive of SVB Financial Group in 2011.
The company’s operations came to an abrupt halt Friday as California banking regulators moved quickly to shut it down in what became the biggest bank failure since the financial crisis. Just 24 hours earlier, Becker had personally called clients to assure them that his money in the bank was safe.
Becker, who served on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, left the board effective Friday, a spokesman for the Fed’s regional bank said.
In January, Becker said the economic outlook was improving after a downbeat 2022.
“We’re optimistic because our crystal ball is a little clearer,” Becker told CNBC. While he expected public markets to stabilize, “we still think there will be more volatility in the first half.”
Becker graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in business, according to the Silicon Valley Bank website. From there, he worked at a bank that served what he called “traditional companies.” When his manager went to work for Silicon Valley Bank, Becker followed him, he said in a 2021 Bloomberg podcast.
Silicon Valley Bank representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The banker described his early years at SVB as “the highest of highs and the lowest of lows” as the lender navigated technological defeat in the late 1990s.
“We had losses. It was a difficult time for us… I remember it fondly. I learned a lot about the institution. I learned a lot about how to lend money,” he said.
Before becoming Chairman and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker co-founded SVB Capital, the company’s investment arm. He also served as Chairman of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group from 2014 to 2017 and was a member of the US Department of Commerce Digital Economy Advisory Board from 2016 to 2017. Becker rides bicycles in his and his spare time. he has five grown children.
Silicon Valley Bank’s website calls Becker a “champion of the economics of innovation.” In a video for the BBC in December, Becker said the best career advice from him was for job seekers to develop a skill set around the economics of innovation in fields like computer programming and project management.
“When you think about your opportunity, if you’re underrepresented with those abilities, it really is endless,” he said.