Greg Becker, the chief executive officer who presided over the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank, joined the company three decades ago as a loan officer.
The banker described his first few years at SVB as "the highest of highs and the lowest of lows" as the lender navigated the tech rout in the late 1990s.
"We took losses. It was a challenging time for us... I look back on it fondly. I learned a lot about the institution. I learned a lot about how to lend money," he said. Before becoming president and CEO of SVB Financial Group, Becker co-founded SVB Capital, the company's investment arm. He also served as the chairman of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group from 2014 to 2017 and was a member of the U.S. Commerce Department's Digital Economy Board of Advisors from 2016 to 2017. Becker cycles in his free time and has five grown children.video for the BBC
in December, Becker said his best career advice was for job seekers to build a skill-set around the innovation economy in fields like computer programming and project management. "When you think about your opportunity, if you are underrepresented with those skills, it truly is endless," he said.Hannah LangHannah Lang covers financial technology and cryptocurrency, including the businesses that drive the industry and policy developments that govern the sector. Hannah previously worked at American Banker where she covered bank regulation and the Federal Reserve. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park and lives in Washington, DC.
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