Why One Silicon Valley Bank Exec Is Being Singled Out

The executive, who appears to be the unfortunate victim of events, is having a rough week.

What are the chances that a high-ranking executive at the recently collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had previously worked at a bank that collapsed in the early aughts of the 2008 financial crisis? It's difficult to calculate the chances, but however likely, the happenstance is looking very unfortunate for one Joseph Gentile.

Gentile was the Chief Administrative Officer at SVB -- until it was shut down by California regulators on Friday, March 10. Over the weekend, news and social media sites churned out countless updates and outlooks. Several pointed out that Gentile had previously worked for Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008 at the start of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

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Commenters took to Twitter -- an app that is notoriously only filled with nice, logical people -- assuming that Gentile was directly related to the failure of both institutions.

There's no evidence of Gentile's contribution or lack thereof to either bank collapse.

 Still, speculation was intense enough that SVB Securities felt compelled to release a statement. The release included a timeline of Gentile's work with both banks, stating that he "worked at Lehman Brothers for a short six-month time span where he served as the CFO of their Fixed Income Division[...] His time [there] ended in January 2007, 18 months prior to the Lehman Brother's bankruptcy."

The press release also noted that it was "unfortunate that [Gentile's] 6-month stint at Lehman Brothers [... is] being connected to the unfortunate events that have occurred at Silicon Valley Bank."