Silicon Valley Bank Names Platts to Lead Its $16 Billion Wealth Unit

Amanda Albright, Bloomberg News

Greg Becker, chief executive officer of Silicon Valley Bank, participates in a panel discussion during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. The event convenes the best minds in the world to tackle its most urgent challenges and to help realize its most exciting opportunities. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Silicon Valley Bank named Erin Platts head of its private banking and wealth-management arm, which caters to the financial needs of technology and venture capital executives.

Platts, 40, the chief executive officer of Silicon Valley Bank UK, will be president of SVB Private, which managed $15.9 billion as of Sept. 30, the Santa Clara, California-based company said. She’ll relocate to New York from London for her new role, which will involve leading the firm’s private banking, wealth planning and trust services.

“There’s this massive opportunity with all the wealth creation happening in the innovation economy,” Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, said in an interview. “Despite the headwinds we have right now, there’s a lot of wealth creation.”

SVB Private specializes in working with wealthy individuals from fields like health care, technology, venture capital, life sciences and private equity. Many of those industries have struggled in 2022 as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and investors flee the most speculative assets.

Technology companies in the Silicon Valley region, from Meta Platforms Inc. to Intel Corp. to DoorDash Inc., have been reducing headcount this year to contend with a slowing economy and sinking stock prices.

“The tech industry goes through ups and downs,” Becker said. “If you get overly focused on one period of time -- one year, two years -- you’re going to miss out on the long-term trajectory in tech and health care.”

David Sabow, who previously was the firm’s head of technology and health-care banking, will take over for Platts as CEO of Silicon Valley Bank UK.