Santander Bank announced that veteran commercial banking executive Robert Rubino has been named Co-President of the Bank and Managing Director, Head of Corporate and Commercial Banking. Santander also announced that Michael Cleary, the Bank’s current Head of Consumer and Business Banking, has been appointed Co-President of the Bank.

“The market opportunity for Santander’s corporate and commercial business remains strong,” said Scott Powell, CEO of Santander US. “Bob’s significant expertise delivering growth across all aspects of commercial banking will help build on the progress we’ve seen this year and increase our competitive position in the market. His leadership approach and strategic vision for our business are exactly what we need going forward to distinguish ourselves as a leading commercial banking franchise.”

Rubino comes to Santander from Citizens Financial Group where he served as Executive Vice President within the commercial banking division during his 10 year tenure with the company. There he led Corporate Finance & Capital Markets and was responsible for building and managing Capital Markets, Sales & Trading, Leveraged Finance, Asset Based Lending & Restructuring, Leasing, Sponsor Finance, Strategic Client Acquisition, MidCorporate, Foreign Corporate, Private Equity, Industry Verticals and Global Markets. 

He has 29 years of extensive experience in all aspects of commercial banking and a proven track record of delivering significant growth by building new business channels, closing key capability gaps, improving risk management and increasing fee based profits and market share growth. During his time at Citizens, Bob was the architect for building-out the commercial bank, personally creating or restructuring 19 businesses including a top 10 capital markets franchise, commercial broker dealer, stand-alone global markets business and industry banking coverage organization. Bob served as chair of the bank's loan underwriting committee, President and CEO of the bank's commercial broker dealer and was a member of the bank's commercial management and operating committee and joint trusts committee.  Prior to Citizens, Bob served as Executive Vice President at Bank of America in a variety of executive roles including within Bank of America Business Capital US and Europe.

Rubino earned a M.S. in economics from the London School of Economics and a B.S. in economics from Providence College. He resides in Mansfield, Massachusetts with his wife, Katy, and four daughters.

Cleary has served as Santander’s Head of Consumer and Business Banking since 2015. He has been instrumental in greatly enhancing Santander’s sales and service processes, and digital and mobile banking capabilities, improving the customer experience, and developing a culture that focuses on always doing the right thing for customers. Before joining the Bank, Cleary was Group Executive Vice President and Head of U.S. Distribution for Consumer Banking at RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc., where he was a member of the Executive Committee and the Executive Leadership Group. Prior to Citizens, Michael spent 13 years with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in various leadership roles including membership on the JPMorgan Executive Committee, CEO of Business Banking, Chief Marketing Officer for Retail Banking, Chief Operating Officer for Retail Banking, Head of Chase Private Client and President of wingspanbank.com. Cleary holds a B.S. from Princeton University and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.

Santander provides capital, cash, treasury management, risk management and international solutions to thousands of commercial, corporate and institutional clients across a wide variety of industries in the Northeast, the mid-Atlantic and across the United States. Working with commercial clients who generate $25 million to $2 billion in operating revenue is Santander’s specialty. With access to an extensive array of sophisticated capabilities, our locally based and highly experienced bankers can customize solutions for each of their corporate and institutional clients. When combined with our on-the-ground presence in several key regions around the world, Santander is uniquely positioned to help our commercial clients achieve their goals – locally, domestically and internationally.