By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published March 4, 2010

Christopher Gompper will step back from his role as strategy director for The South Financial Group to run Carolina First, the company’s banking arm in South Carolina and North Carolina.

It’s unclear how long he’ll remain president of Carolina First. He was named interim president on Wednesday. He replaces Scott Frierson, who resigned in September.

Gompper will continue to run strategic operations for South Financial in the Carolinas. Ernie Diaz, president of the company’s Mercantile Bank in Florida, will take over those responsibilities there.

When the bank returns to profitability, Gompper could return to his role as executive vice president of bank strategy and business segment performance for the parent company, and South Financial could reopen the search for a president at Carolina First.

“Chris is always going to be among the top two or three guys in the company because of his skills,” said South Financial President and CEO Lynn Harton.

Gompper, pictured, said the priorities in his new role will be to improve the bank’s credit, product pricing and operational efficiency.

“Then lastly growth,” he added. “In past years, we’ve focused on growth first and then these other things. It should be the opposite.”

This is the latest leadership change at South Financial since Harton took over for former Chairman and CEO Mack Whittle. Harton named Diaz the president at Mercantile Bank in February 2009, and at the same time, established a new 10-person executive management team to replace the three-person council that operated under Whittle.

Additionally, South Financial named Rich Bradshaw executive vice president and director of the newly created Small Business Administration Lending unit in August. Bradshaw quickly expanded his role in January to replace Chris Holmes, who resigned as executive vice president, director of corporate financial services.

When Frierson resigned for unspecified personal reasons in September as the president of Carolina First, South Financial launched a national search for his replacement. Harton said he discovered that the company needed an insider to help resolve credit problems and lay the foundation for a turnaround. South Financial has reported eight consecutive quarterly losses amounting to $1.3 billion.

“A lot of the (other) candidates wanted to move forward. They wanted the problems to just be in the past,” Harton said. 

In the past, he said, the bank unintentionally brought on competing cultures that have contributed to the bank’s current problems.

Gompper has been with South Financial since 2005. Prior to that, he managed treasury and card services sales activities for AmSouth Bank in Birmingham, Ala. and previously held senior management positions with a variety of banking companies, including Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase.

“Chris knows where we want to go,” Harton said, “and he knows how to get there.”