ATB Financial to announce new president and CEO Thursday

Alberta’s Crown-owned bank ATB Financial will announce its next president and CEO on Thursday, who will replace the retiring Dave Mowat.

After 11 years as head of the financial institution, Mowat will be stepping down as CEO and president on June 30.

READ MORE: ATB president Dave Mowat retiring after 11 years

Mowat, who will turn 63 next month, has three adult children and is hoping there will be an opportunity to be involved in a family business.

“One is a geomatic engineer, another builds houses and the other is a banker. They are all interested in a family business of some kind,” Mowat told Global News when announcing his retirement from ATB earlier this year. “It will be fun to work with them. I am flattered our kids want to do something together.”

Mowat led the bank through the 2008-09 financial crisis, as well as the oil slump that took hold in 2015. He leaves as the economy shows signs of recovery.

He was also the chairman of an Alberta government panel that carried out a royalty review in 2015. His review recommended keeping things the same for oilsands projects, but tweaking the framework for conventional oil and natural gas wells so royalty rates better take into account the costs of drilling, instead of just production rates and commodity prices.

READ MORE: Alberta sets out details for new oil and gas royalty framework

Since Mowat assumed the top role, ATB has grown from $20.3 billion in total assets in 2007 to $49.6 billion today. In that same time, the number of ATB customers has grown from 600,000 to 740,000.

Since 2007, the financial institution has contributed $72 million in corporate donations and sponsorships, including raising $9.1 million for the United Way and $9 million for the Stollery and Alberta Children’s Hospitals.

READ MORE: ATB launches virtual banking assistant on Facebook Messenger

Mowat also spearheaded the Light the Bridge project, which used individual donations to fund programmable LED lights across Edmonton’s High Level Bridge.

WATCH: Jul 1, 2014 — Quinn Ohler took a look at what it took to get the lights on the High Level bridge.