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Toby Clements will become U.S. Bank’s chief operations officer, effective April 13, the Minneapolis-based lender announced Thursday.

Clements’ predecessor, Souheil Badran, said in January he planned to retire after three years with U.S. Bank and a 34-year career largely in financial services.

Clements, meanwhile, joined U.S. Bank in 2017 and has run operations in several lines of business, including its Europe arm, cards and merchant payment solutions, and client services, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also held two broader operations positions – two years as a transformation leader, and two as chief risk officer.

Clements will report directly to U.S. Bank CEO Gunjan Kedia and join the bank’s managing committee.

“Toby is a strong, engaging leader who has a clear desire to serve our clients and run our business effectively,” Kedia said in a prepared statement. “His deep understanding of our company, customers and partners will ensure our ability to deliver integrated experiences that are simple, innovative and collaborative.”

Earlier in his career, Clements worked in executive roles at PTSB in Dublin, Ireland, and Tesco Bank in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Kedia said Badran’s “contributions to strengthening the company’s operational foundation and developing our people will have a lasting impact.” 

Appearing last year on the 1% Better Improvement Podcast, Badran said his leadership strategy had five pillars: empathy and inclusion, continuous learning, empowerment, emotional intelligence and integrity.

“Give the tools, give the resources, have them come up to you with good ideas, but support them where they need it to succeed,” Badran said of how he led his U.S. Bank team. “My job isn’t to challenge them on [whether] it’s a good idea or a bad idea … it’s a matter of prioritizing. No one’s come to me in the last couple of years with a bad idea. It’s more, where does this fit in the priorities?”

“Empowering them to come up with the ideas is really key,” Badran said.

A U.S. Bank spokesperson declined to comment on the executive move beyond the press release.

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