You're are assuming she didn't understand the situation when she took the job. I think it's much more likely she did and decided to take on the challenge to tu

You're are assuming she didn't understand the situation when she took the job. I think it's much more likely she did and decided to take on the challenge to turn it around. People in the industry knew they were in trouble. (I remember some of my banking colleagues talking about it last year). That's probably why it was so hard for them to fill the CRO job. SVB had declined almost 66% in 2022. They were the 4th worst performer in the S&P 500. Their balance sheet concentration and mix made them an outlier in the industry and unusually exposed to rising interest rates. Its failure wasn't inevitable though. It had a strong brand and deep customer relationships with one of the primary engines of the US economy. If they could raise enough capital to fix their balance sheet, they could weather the storm. She was a regulator that worked on stress testing banks after 2008 and could help them decide on how much capital they truly needed. It turns out it was a lot, and when they finally did announce details of the capital raise, investors got spooked and it triggered a bank run.