Carver CEO to helm community development
nonprofit with $30 billion in local
investments
Will begin in role on October 2, 2023
NEW
YORK, Aug. 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local
Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has named Michael T. Pugh, president and CEO of Carver
Bancorp [NASDAQ: CARV], as its new chief executive officer.
Pugh has more than 30 years of experience in banking, with a
particular focus on expanding access to capital for underserved
families, businesses, and communities. He spent more than a decade
at Harlem-based Carver leading the nation's largest publicly traded
African American-operated bank, with more than $720 million in assets.
As LISC CEO, he will oversee a national network that has
invested nearly $30 billion in
affordable housing, small businesses, education, health, safety,
and jobs in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. LISC is one of the nation's
largest community development financial institutions with more than
500 employees, 38 metro area program offices, and a rural
development program supporting work in 2,400 counties. In 2022,
LISC deployed a record $2.8 billion
to bridge gaps in health, wealth, and opportunity, prioritizing
efforts to address systemic racial disparities.
"It takes someone with substantial financial and management
acumen to effectively connect local programs to national strategies
that advance economic opportunity and growth," said former U.S.
Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin,
who has served as LISC board chair for more than two decades.
"Michael has demonstrated that capacity throughout his career. He
is passionate about extending opportunities to people who have not
had the chance to fully participate in the American economy. We
look forward to him bringing his considerable skills to LISC to
help us make a lasting, positive impact."
As a young man, Pugh developed an affinity for finance while
working his way through college as a bank teller, seeing the ways
that bankers interact with community members and hearing clients'
hopes and dreams for themselves and their families. He began to
understand how basic access to capital directly influences people's
lives.
"Finance is not just about bottom lines. It is a way for people
to build a strong future for their families," Pugh said. "It is
about unlocking the opportunity to go to college, buy a home,
launch a business, and age with dignity and security. The
opportunity to help people create better lives and build assets,
and to do so on a transformative national scale, is what attracted
me to LISC. I look forward to working with the remarkable LISC team
to empower even more people to thrive."
During his years at Carver, Pugh directed efforts that grew the
institution's base of assets and investors, while digitizing
financial products and launching innovative programs to address the
needs of underbanked families and small business owners,
particularly minority and women-owned business enterprises.
Earlier in his career, Pugh was a senior vice president at
Capital One, N.A., where he oversaw 75 banking centers and
$3 billion in deposits in
Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware. Prior to that, he was a senior vice
president at Citizens Financial Group, leading retail banking in
Michigan and Indiana and overseeing 67 banking centers.
"With Michael, we begin a new era of creative leadership that
will help LISC write its next chapter," said Sally Durdan, a board member who led the CEO
search committee. "He is an innovator, a motivator, and an
experienced manager of people and financial programs. He has the
ability to drive both national policy and local impact—not just for
LISC, but for our partners and for communities across the
country."
Pugh, 51, will begin his new role as LISC CEO on October 2nd, joining a leadership team that has
decades of experience in the organization and in community
development finance broadly. He succeeds Lisa Glover, a long-time LISC board member who
came out of retirement in 2021 to serve as CEO and help the
organization through a leadership transition at the height of the
pandemic amid unprecedented growth at LISC.
"We are grateful for Lisa's willingness to step up to lead LISC
at a time of intense pressure for many of LISC's partners, and for
the country as a whole," Rubin said. "She was able to put her
decades of management experience to work helping steer us through
new and expanded programs while overseeing significant workplace
changes and solidifying our financial position for the future," he
said.
A native of Detroit, Pugh
graduated from Eastern Michigan
University with a bachelor's degree in health care
administration. In recent years, he has volunteered his time on
boards and in organizational leadership positions, including with
The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, The New York Bankers
Association, The Economic Club of New
York, the Community Development Bankers Association, and the
Society for Financial Education & Professional Development.
About LISC
LISC is one of the country's largest
community development organizations, helping forge vibrant,
resilient communities across America. We work with residents and
partners to close systemic gaps in health, wealth and opportunity
and advance racial equity so that people and places can thrive.
Since our founding in 1979, LISC has invested $29.7 billion to create more than 489,000
affordable homes and apartments, develop 81.4 million square feet
of retail, community, and educational space and help tens of
thousands of people find employment and improve their finances. For
more, visit www.lisc.org.
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SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)