Santander and Webster Bank sketched out a second layer of management Monday, with roles set to take effect once the $12.3 billion combination between the lenders is complete.
Chris Motl, Webster’s head of commercial banking, will lead the combined bank’s commercial-banking businesses, according to a Webster document confirming the roles.
Jason Mock, Santander U.S.’s head of retail distribution, will lead the combined bank’s retail-banking division, the banks said.
James Griffin, Webster’s head of consumer banking, will serve under Mock as head of national retail distribution and consumer lending. In that role, Griffin will lead the banks’ network of more than 500 branches and continue to drive the growth of interSYNC, the rebranded digital deposit-gathering platform once called interLINK.
Drew Burchard, Santander U.S.’s head of product and platforms, will be named the combined bank’s head of digital banking.
That means Swati Bhatia, who has led Santander’s Openbank and the Spanish lender’s U.S. retail bank since 2024, is out. Bhatia, who once led Goldman Sachs’ Marcus, will leave the bank June 30, Santander said in an update seen by American Banker.
In a memo, Santander’s U.S. chief, Christiana Riley, lauded Bhatia, noting she made "a significant and lasting impact" on Openbank, which amassed $6 billion in deposits over its first year.
When the banks announced in February that Santander would acquire Webster, they named several top-level leaders: While Riley will remain the Spanish lender’s top U.S. executive, Webster CEO John Ciulla will become the CEO of Santander Bank, N.A., into which all of Webster’s businesses will be integrated.
Meanwhile, Luis Massiani, Webster’s president and chief operating officer, will become COO of both Santander Holdings USA and Santander Bank, and lead the integration, reporting to both Riley and Ciulla.
In its statement, Webster called this week’s appointments “an important step forward in our integration,” which is expected to close in the third quarter.
Leadership appointments for support functions will be shared once decisions are finalized in the coming weeks, the bank said.
