Dive Brief:
- Discover’s top lawyer, Hope Mehlman, is leaving the Riverwoods, Illinois-based company, Discover said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday.
- Mehlman will become chief legal and corporate affairs officer for Ally, the bank announced Monday.
- Mehlman, Discover’s executive vice president, chief legal officer, general counsel and corporate secretary, will leave Nov. 29, or once the card company’s acquisition by Capital One is finalized, whichever date is sooner, Discover said Friday. She is expected to join Ally on Dec. 2, the bank said.
Dive Insight:
Mehlman is hardly the first Discover executive to move to Ally this year: Michael Rhodes, the former TD executive Discover tapped last December to become its CEO, left the card company in April to lead Ally.
Rhodes served as CEO for just weeks. Capital One announced it would acquire Discover just before Rhodes was set to come aboard.
Mehlman, meanwhile, has plenty of work on her plate before leaving.
Capital One customers have sued to block the Discover deal, which would create the nation's largest credit card company. The acquisition still needs regulatory approval, and consumer advocates have asked regulators to block the tie-up on the grounds that it would stifle competition and increase prices.
While Mehlman's contract requires her to stay through Jan. 9, Discover elected to let her leave before then and to waive her obligation to repay her sign-on bonus, which she would have owed the company for leaving before her contract expired, the filing said.
However, Discover agreed to pay Mehlman a cash lump sum of $850,000 to $1 million, as long as she isn't fired for cause before her final day with the company.
Mehlman joined Discover in January 2023 from Bank of the West, according to her LinkedIn profile — meaning her last job transition came during an acquisition, too: BMO’s purchase of San Francisco-based Bank of the West, once BNP Paribas’ U.S. footprint. Mehlman previously spent 14 years at Regions Bank.
Mehlman was paid $6.6 million in 2023, according to a March 15 SEC filing. That figure includes her base salary of $553,000, along with stock awards and a $3.4 million signing bonus.
Representatives of Discover did not immediately respond to an email seeking additional comment.
