Dive Brief:

• Piper Sandler kicked off 2024 with a new CFO at the helm as Morgan Stanley alum Kate Clune officially took over, effective Jan. 1, for Timothy Carter, who will be retiring this quarter after serving as the firm’s finance chief for six years, according to company releases. She will report directly to CEO Chad Abraham. 

• The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based investment banking firm announced the change but not an effective date in September, saying that Carter would retire in the first quarter and stay on to help with the transition through April. Ahead of formally taking the CFO seat, Clune, 43, was to join the company in November with an interim title of senior vice president of finance, according to a Sept. 12 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

• “It is an honor to officially be named the next chief financial officer of Piper Sandler,” said Clune in a statement contained in a release Tuesday thanking Carter for his support and mentorship. “I’m excited to step into the role and work in close partnership with Chad and the rest of the leadership team to continue to grow the business and maximize value for our shareholders.” 

Dive Insight:

From June of 2022, Clune served as treasurer and head of planning and strategy at Evercore, an independent investment banking advisory firm. Prior to that she worked from 2005 to 2021 at Morgan Stanley, where she held a range of roles including most recently working as a managing director and global head of liquidity coverage and planning, finance, and from 2017-2020 as CFO, U.S. Banks, according to the SEC filing.  

Clune will receive an annualized base salary of $500,000 beginning on her effective date and her compensation will include a restricted cash award of $720,000 and restricted stock awards of shares of the company’s common stock valued at $800,000, which will vest over four years following the date of the grant, and $750,000 which will vest on a different schedule.

In 2022, Carter’s compensation totaled $2.35 million compared to $3.1 million in 2021, according to the company’s 2023 proxy filing with the SEC. His pay included a base salary of $425,000 in both years. 

The change comes as the company reported a net loss of $13.67 million in the third quarter, compared with net income of $10.7 million in the year earlier period, as total revenues fell 13% to $292 million in the period ended Sept. 30 from $334.4 million year-over-year. But there were some signs of improvement: the company’s total revenues held roughly flat from the second quarter, while Piper Sandler’s investment banking revenues rose 15% to $211.7 million sequentially from the second quarter. 

"While market conditions remain challenging, our broad product capabilities and industry diversification continue to provide resiliency to our results. Performance in several of our businesses during the third quarter was strong on both an absolute and relative basis and we are pleased with this momentum," Abraham said in a statement.