Alan H. Fishman (born 16 March 1946) is an American businessman. He was notably the last CEO of

Washington Mutual Washington Mutual (often abbreviated to WaMu) was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008. A savings bank holding company is defined in United States Code: Title 12: Banks and Banking; Section 1842: Def ...

(WaMu) prior to its assets being seized by federal regulators on September 25, 2008.

Education and Career

Fishman holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a master's degree in economics from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He was previously president and chief operating officer of

Sovereign Bank Santander Bank, N. A. (), formerly Sovereign Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group. It is based in Boston and its principal market is the northeastern United States. It has $57.5 billion in deposits, operates about ...

and president and chief executive officer of Independence Community Bank. He has served as chairman of Meridian Capital Group (beginning in 2007), one of the nation's largest commercial mortgage brokerage firms. He has been a private equity investor, focusing on financial services at Neuberger & Berman, Adler & Shaykin and at his own firm Columbia Financial Partners. In addition, he held senior executive positions at Chemical Bank and ContiFinancial Corporation. Fishman was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Academy of Music, on which he served for nearly thirty years, until January 2017.

Washington Mutual

Fishman joined WaMu on 8 September 2008, replacing outgoing CEO

Kerry Killinger Kerry Killinger (born June 6, 1949) is an American businessman and author. He is founder and CEO of Crescent Capital Associates, and previously served as chairman and chief executive officer of Washington Mutual from 1990 until 2008. He and his wi ...

as part of that bank's restructuring in the face of the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. He served as the bank's CEO for 17 days before its banking assets were seized by federal regulators in the largest bank failure in American history. WaMu's banking operations were sold to

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

for $1.9 billion, while the remainder of WaMu declared bankruptcy the next day. According to C-Span on 26 September 2008, Alan H. Fishman was ultimately paid $19 million for three weeks of being with Washington Mutual, including severance pay. Meanwhile, the company's stock price dwindled to only pennies after trading as high as $45 a share in 2007. The previous CEO was paid $14 million for one year on the job.

References

Brown University alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Living people 1960 births American chief operating officers American chief executives of financial services companies 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-CEO-stub