Dime Community Bank has hired former Republic First CEO Tom Geisel as its senior executive vice president of commercial lending, the Hauppauge, New York-based bank said Thursday in a release.
This isn’t the first time Dime has scooped up talent from banks that faltered in 2023 and 2024 – and the bank’s CEO, Stuart Lubow, said as much Thursday.
"Dime has had tremendous success growing core deposits and business loans over the past two years by taking advantage of the significant disruption in our marketplace and adding talent to our organization,” Lubow said. “Recruiting Tom to our organization is the next logical step in the execution of our business plan.”
Geisel served as CEO of Philadelphia-based Republic First from December 2022 through the lender’s failure in April 2024 and until it integrated with Fulton Bank in July, according to his LinkedIn profile.
In a statement, Geisel said he is “pleased” to “be part of [Dime’s] growth story,” adding he aims to leverage the bank’s “positive momentum in creating a high-performing, local champion.”
“Dime’s entrepreneurial culture and customer-first mindset attracted me to the institution,” Geisel said Thursday. “Its strong balance sheet and best-in-class capital strength provides an attractive foundation for talented commercial bankers.”
Dime last April hired six groups of bankers from Flagstar, in a move meant to deepen the bank’s presence in Nassau County and Brooklyn, and give it a toehold in Westchester County. Flagstar had recently suffered a surprise $252 million loss – that widened to $2.4 billion – owing to its commercial real estate exposure. The bank saw an 84% drop in its stock price before it was rescued by investors led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Earlier, Dime hired 13 deposit groups from Signature, First Republic and Valley National Bank. Signature and First Republic failed in 2023, and Valley National saw follow-on troubles in a larger regional lending crisis.
In his role at Dime, Geisel is expected to build out and continue to diversify the bank’s commercial lending business.
Republic First days
Geisel gained notice in 2023 as he tried to curb any investor confusion at Republic First when First Republic began to wobble.
“Amid everything going on, Republic Bank would like to make very clear: we are Republic Bank, Inc. (FRBK-Red/Blue Logo); we are NOT First Republic Bank (FRC-Green Logo),” he wrote in a letter to customers.
Republic First’s troubles, though, dated at least to late 2021, when activist investor Abbott Cooper asserted the bank’s earnings per share and stock price were low relative to its peers.
At the time, CEO Vernon Hill had announced a strategy to raise capital and grow the bank’s footprint. But Republic First delayed that capital raise indefinitely, and the bank’s eight-member board became evenly split between Hill’s supporters and an investor group, led by New Jersey power broker George Norcross and former TD U.S. CEO Greg Braca, that aligned itself with Cooper.
The stalemate only broke when one of Hill’s board allies died, prompting the other faction to oust Hill (but not without a lawsuit). Hill left the bank in July 2022.
Investors unveiled a plan to pour $125 million into Republic First. But that deal faltered two months later.
The Norcross-Braca group later signed a letter of intent to infuse Republic First with $35 million if the bank were to find investors who would give another $40 million.
That deal, too, proved more difficult than expected. The parties extended the agreement’s initial deadline, then canceled the investment altogether after the second deadline passed.
Dime de-emphasized Geisel’s time at Republic First, mentioning the bank only in the last sentence of its release Thursday. Geisel’s banking career, spanning at least 25 years, has been punctuated by stints as northeast regional president at KeyBank, president of corporate banking at Webster Bank and CEO of Sun Bancorp, according to his LinkedIn profile.
