Sallie Mae appointed Paul Thome as president of the Sallie Mae Bank. He has 37 years experience in banking and financial services leadership. He was most recently Sallie Mae’s senior vice president of business finance and procurement.
The new appointee joined the student loan firm in 2009 from Credit One Financial Services where he was the chief financial officer. He previously had a 10-year stint at MBNA where he was executive vice president of corporate development, mergers and acquisitions.
He started his career in public accounting at Coopers and Lybrand and then spent 15 years in senior executive positions at MNC Financial and First Tennessee Mortgage.
Thome's announcement follows John (Jack) Remondi's appointment as president and chief operating officer and Jonathan Clark's being named executive vice president and CFO at Sallie Mae.
Laurent Lutz also recently joined the firm as executive vice president and general counsel. Lutz was most recently chief legal officer and secretary of BearingPoint.
In 2010, Sallie Mae launched its direct banking business, offering Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured online savings accounts and Certificates of Deposit through the bank.
