Navient announced today that board member David L. Yowan, a former corporate treasurer for American Express, has been appointed CEO of the Wilmington-based company.
He succeeds Jack Remondi, effective May 15. Remondi, whose director term expires as of the 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on May 25, will not be renominated to the board at the Annual Meeting.
Navient stock rose 1.8% on Monday.
“With more than 40 years of finance industry experience, and after six years on the Navient board, Dave Yowan brings significant financial and strategic expertise and strong leadership skills to his new role,” said Linda Mills, chair of the board. “We are confident that his deep understanding of Navient’s business operations, culture, challenges and opportunities, as well as a proven track record in transformational change, will help enable us to deliver exceptional results for our customers, investors and other stakeholders.”
Mills continued, “We are grateful to Jack for his years of service, his leadership over many significant transitions, and his commitment to Navient and its employees.”
Yowan said, “Navient has a proven history of evolving its business to best support the financial success of its customers. I am excited to work closely with the board and management team to undertake an in-depth review of our businesses and develop impactful strategies to deliver strong results for our shareholders. We will remain focused on and accelerate our efforts to simplify the company and make it more efficient, increase the cash flows to shareholders from our legacy loan portfolios, and identify ways to maximize the value of our growth businesses.”
Yowan has been a director of Navient since April 2017. Prior to joining American Express in 1999, Yowan spent time at Citicorp in its global consumer banking business and before that at the Ayco Corporation, now a part of Goldman Sachs.
Navient, which was spun off from Newark-based Sallie Mae, struggled with federal and state governments over its federal student loan collection policies and later reached a financial settlement while unloading that business. It also added an online student lender, Earnest, and Duncan Parking Solutions, a parking management and collections company
