Serial bank fixer Thomas O’Brien has been named president and chief executive of Bayonne, New Jersey-based BCB Bancorp and its wholly owned subsidiary, BCB Community Bank.
O’Brien’s nearly five-decade career includes five stints as bank CEO, including, most recently, five years at Southfield, Michigan-based Sterling Bancorp. Sterling’s board hired O’Brien to lead remediation efforts after the bank got into hot water with the Justice Department – a $69 million securities fraud for which it pleaded guilty in 2023.
O’Brien orchestrated the $261 million sale of Sterling last year to Jacksonville, Florida-based EverBank Financial.
Prior to Sterling, he ran Sun National Bank from 2014 to 2018, State Bank of Long Island from 2006 to 2012, Atlantic Bank of New York from 2000 to 2006, and North Side Savings Bank from 1985 to 1996.
“The challenges in the community banking space continue to impact many organizations,” O’Brien said in a statement alongside his Monday hiring announcement. “The heavy demands of regulation, operating costs, technology, and finding key talent coupled with intense competition for quality lending opportunities pressures this industry on a daily basis.”
BCB has faced these challenges, as well as operating costs from its legacy credit portfolio, according to O’Brien.
“My immediate goal is to identify the areas of the company that need further improvement and undertake an aggressive program to address these matters. I look forward to working with the board and employees of BCB on this journey,” he said.
The $3.3 billion-asset company reported a $12 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2025 and a full-year loss of $12.5 million, according to a January earnings report.
BCB’s fourth-quarter results reflected a $15.1 million pre-tax write-down on an isolated cannabis-related real estate owned property, as well as $16.3 million in additional net charge-offs, primarily within its commercial and industrial loan portfolio, then-CEO Michael Shriner said at the time.
Shriner left BCB on May 20, according to a securities filing. Chief Operating Officer Ryan Blake served as interim CEO until O’Brien took the helm Monday.
The CEO shift was made “to address the recent operational and credit challenges” BCB has experienced, Chair Mark Hogan said in a prepared statement.
“We believe that [O’Brien] is the right person to address the challenges we have endured in the recent past and to provide a sound foundation for the Company’s future,” Hogan said.
