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.