When Mike Kramer was hired in late 2011 to help turn around FSG Bank, Chattanooga's biggest independent bank was losing more than $1.5 million a month and operating under a consent order from bank regulators because of hefty losses during the Great Recession.
Kramer, who had engineered financial turnarounds before in Indiana and Ohio, said Friday the successful recovery of FSG and its ultimate merger with Atlantic Capital Bank in Atlanta was the most satisfying in his career. So after years of restructuring, recapitalizing and renaming the former FSG, Kramer announced Friday he will vacate his job as president and chief operating officer of Atlantic Capital by the end of the year.
Kramer, the 59-year-old banker who led the $160 million sale of FSG to Atlantic Capital Bancshares Inc. two years ago, will leave the Atlantic Capital board at the end of October and resign from the bank by Dec. 22.
"It was a blessing to have been brought to Chattanooga six years ago and to lead the turnaround at FSG that paved the way for our merger with Atlantic Capital," Kramer said.
Although he grew up in Pittsburgh and previously lived in the Midwest, Kramer said he and his wife, Meg, are staying in Chattanooga.
"Meg and I are very excited to see what the Lord has in store for us next, whatever that might be," he said. "Our plan is stay right here in Chattanooga, our adopted hometown, so long as the city will have us."
With Kramer's planned departure, Atlantic Capital said Friday that CEO Douglas L. Williams will also become president and the bank's board will shrink from 11 to 10 members.
In Chattanooga, Joe DiNicolantonio, a former executive vice president at Region Bank, was hired in May to head the former FSG retail and commercial operations for Atlantic Capital in East Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.
Richard Oglesby, currently chief credit and risk management officer, will become General Banking Division Executive.
"We are fortunate to have talented and experienced bankers like Rich and Joe to reinvigorate business development momentum in our core Georgia and Tennessee markets," Williams said.
The head of $2 billion-asset Atlantic Capital Bank also praised Kramer, who he said "has been indispensable to the successful integration of our two institutions" as chief operating officer for the past two years.
Kramer said Friday he is probably a better CEO than a COO.
"It's been a couple of years since we closed on the deal with Atlantic Capital and we've really completed the integration and I think put together a great team to lead this bank into the future," Kramer said. "I figured it was time to move on now."
As head of FSG prior to its merger with Atlantic Capital, Kramer worked to restructure and sell $150 million of troubled loans, raised $97 million to capitalize the bank and trimmed the number of FSG branches from 37 to 15. While cutting costs and troubled loans, he built up the wealth management division and restructured the bank from a broad-based retail-focused bank to more of a merchant and business bank, similar to Atlantic Capital which ultimately acquired FSG in October 2015.
Last year, Atlantic Capital sold its former Chattanooga headquarters to Playcore Corp., and moved its local headquarters into the third floor of Warehouse Row.
As of June 30, Atlantic Capital Bank was the 12th biggest bank in metro Chattanooga with $170.5 million in local deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.