New head at Ally Financial

Jeffrey J. Brown is to take over from Michael A. Carpenter as chief executive of Ally Financial following Carpenter’s retirement from the CEO post and from the lender’s board.

Ally chairman Franklin “Fritz” Hobbs will work closely with Brown on all areas of the business and said: “Jeff Brown is an extraordinarily talented executive with deep financial and operational experience and a strong vision of how to take Ally forward into the future.”

Brown joined the company in 2009 as corporate treasurer, becoming executive vice president of finance and corporate planning in 2011, where he oversaw the company’s finance, treasury and corporate strategy activities. In March 2014, he was named CEO of Ally’s dealer financial services business.

“The breadth of experience Jeff has gained during these transformational years at Ally has prepared him fully to take on leadership of the company as it enters its next chapter,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs paid tribute to Carpenter who he said had done “an outstanding job as CEO and as a board member since joining us at an especially difficult and pivotal time in 2009”, and who will now be serving as a consultant to the board.

“Mike stepped in when we needed him most,” Hobbs said. “Ally is a stronger and more focused financial services company today because of him, and it has a great future thanks to his tireless leadership over the past five years.”

Carpenter was responsible for leading the lender’s rebranding as Ally, restructuring the former captive finance company to be a major independent auto finance provider; and making Ally a leader in the growing direct banking space. He was also behind the company’s successful initial public offering (IPO) in 2014 and worked to release Ally from the US government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which the lender had entered in 2008.

Carpenter said: “Having completed our IPO last April and exited TARP in December with a strong balance sheet and a market leading position, it is the right time for me to step aside to hand the baton to the next generation of leadership. I have great confidence in Ally’s future and believe it will continue to grow from strength to strength.”

Commenting on his new role at the head of the company, Brown said: “We are absolutely committed to continue serving our millions of retail customers and nearly 17,000 auto dealers with market-driven, innovative products and services supported by 7,000 dedicated Ally employees. We have the focus, resources and capability to take advantage of opportunities. We are well positioned to meet the challenges of the evolving OEM market, meet our origination goals, serve our customers better than ever and improve returns for shareholders.”

Ally Financial recently reported $41 billion in auto originations for 2014, $9 billion of which were originated in Q4 2014.