GREG Becker, the former CEO of the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), joined the firm more than 30 years ago as a loan officer.
He became president and CEO of SVB Financial Group in 2011, but what is the story behind the man who steered the startup-focused lender through the 2008 global financial crisis and what is his net worth?
Who is Greg Becker?
Greg Becker graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in business and joined Silicon Valley Bank in 1993.
In one of his first deals as a loan officer, he lent $350,000 to a company that was eventually acquired by Cisco for $100 million.
In 1996, he opened the bank’s branch in Boulder, Colorado before returning to Silicon Valley in 1999 to found SVB Capital, the group’s venture capital fund management division.
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Becker quickly rose through the ranks to become the bank’s chief banking officer, chief operating officer, and, in 2008, its president.
In 2011, he became the firm’s CEO and led SVB to become the 16th largest bank in the US and the “go-to banking partner for entrepreneurs, founders and investors.”
Under Becker’s leadership, SVB was named by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 best companies to work for in 2012.
In 2018, SVB joined the S&P 500 and Becker allegedly lobbied US Congress lawmakers to reduce oversight on SVB.
It took three years and more than $500,000 but US lawmakers eventually “obliged.”
Up until SVB’s collapse, Becker was also sitting on the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Becker said in 2019 on a podcast with Mission Daily: “I usually tell people I’ve got the coolest banking job in the entire world.”
In January 2023, Greg Becker said in an interview with CNBC: “I think about 2023 as a transitional year. I’m happy 2022 is over… bottoming out, we kind of felt we were at that lower point… we’re optimistic because our crystal ball is a little clearer than it was in the third quarter last year.”
And just weeks before the bank collapsed, Greg Becker was named in Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Power 100 List.
What happened to Silicon Valley Bank?
Silicon Valley Bank went under on Friday, May 10 in what has become the biggest bank failure since the financial crisis.
Just 24 hours earlier, Becker had called a number of clients assuring them their money with the bank was safe.
Becker sent a video message to employees acknowledging the “incredibly difficult” 48 hours leading up to the bank’s collapse.
He said: “It’s with an incredibly heavy heart that I’m here to deliver this message.
“I can’t imagine what was going through your head and wondering, you know, about your job, your future.”
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, Silicon Valley Bank had been purchasing what are often considered ‘safe’ assets such as US Treasurys and government-backed mortgage bonds.
But when the interest rates started to rise last year, their fixed interest payments didn’t keep up with rising rates, meaning those assets were no longer worth what the bank paid for them.
SVB’s customers were mainly start-ups and other tech and cryptocurrency companies that started becoming needier for cash.
As venture capital funding started to dry up following the stock and cryptocurrency market downturn, firms had to raid their existing funds – often deposited with SVB.
The bank faced $42 billion of deposit withdrawal requests which it didn’t have, prompting regulators to step in and close it down.
SVB did try to raise additional capital through investors but was unable to find them.
On the back of SVB going under, the cryptocurrency market crashed, but has since shown signs of recovery.
What is Greg Becker’s net worth?
Greg Becker is believed to have a net worth of around $40 million.
In 2022, Greg Becker was paid $9.9 million in salary and total compensation, most of which was stock.
Two weeks before SVB went under, Greg Becker sold 12,451 of the bank’s shares for $3.7 million, according to a filing with the US SEC.