Business Restructuring
Restructuring troubled banks: See "Interim CEO Positions"
Trust operations: $1.8 billion trust company
The Operations Unit of this trust company had experienced a change in management followed by rapid turnover in staff as the new management team began implementing more disciplined processes. However, this turnover compounded by significant increases in trading and other volumes threatened the performance and stability of the entire unit.
George worked with the management team to develop a three-stage plan to bring this unstable situation rapidly under control through rationalizing the work assignments, adding temporary accountants to supplement the current staff as a means of clearing the backlog and facilitating the re-assignment of work, and identifying and completing twelve high priority projects to streamline workflow throughout the department
In three months, the staff had stabilized, functions re-assigned, the staff retrained, and the projects completed. The daily work was being accomplished in adequate time to meet custodian and trading deadlines, and planned service level targets were routinely being met.
Retirement plan services business: Large regional banking company
This bank's retirement plan services unit was experiencing significant operational problems, especially in performing daily processing of retirement plans, complying with provisions of the retirement plans it administered, reporting to plan administrators and participants, and delivering acceptable financial results. Exacerbating the issue was the outsourcing of the operational unit to a firm which had never before performed an “on-site” outsourcing arrangement.
George organized a project team comprised of key internal staff supplemented by outside accountants and attorneys to focus upon segregating the work flow supporting each type of service (as they were substantially different) and restructuring each flow to improve timeliness, quality and control; identifying compliance issues and developing strategies to work with the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor to address them; and terminating the outsourcing agreement to bring the processing in-house.
The effort resulted in minimizing the potential claims by plan sponsors and governmental agencies.
Corporate trust business: Large regional banking company
During the late 1980's this corporate trust company found significant operational and management issues with this business. A new management team was hired, and Coopers & Lybrand Consulting ("C&L") was engaged to identify the breadth and depth of the issues and to lead the fix. As a member of C&L, George organized and led a team of 25 securities consultants to fix the trust administration component of this business. The team reviewed all trust files, reconciled and corrected trust accounting for about 100 relationships, and established the required processes to manage and control this business.