TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. chief executive officer Tim Hockey is leaving the company, which is launching a search for his successor.
Mr. Hockey has been CEO at TD Ameritrade, the U.S.-based retail brokerage, since 2016. He was previously group head of Canadian banking and wealth management at Toronto-Dominion Bank, which owns 42 per cent of TD Ameritrade.
Mr. Hockey has agreed to stay on as CEO until the end of February, 2020. He’ll move to an advisory role if his replacement is chosen before then.
He gave only vague reasons for his departure on a conference call with analysts, saying he had “open and honest conversations about the way forward” with TD Ameritrade’s board over a period of time. After his quarterly meeting with the board last week, they decided it was “time to transition to a new CEO," Mr. Hockey said. “It’s not really that much more interesting than that, honestly."
But he also sought to dispel speculation about the motives behind the change, adding: “I’m not leaving for another job, or to spend more time with my family, or because of my health, or because I’ve done something contrary to our core values."
“We are grateful to Tim for his leadership and the contributions he made to the company over his tenure as CEO,” TD Ameritrade chairman Joe Moglia said in a statement.
A Canadian who made his career in Canada, Mr. Hockey was a disciple of former TD CEO Ed Clark, and was once considered a leading candidate to replace him. But after Bharat Masrani won the top job at TD, Mr. Hockey took the helm at TD Ameritrade. He was instrumental in helping stickhandle a US$4-billion deal to acquire Scottrade Financial Services Inc. in 2017, which divided its assets between TD Ameritrade and TD Bank.
Mr. Hockey’s departure was announced Monday, as TD Ameritrade released its financial results for the three months that ended June 30. Earnings per share were up 27 per cent to US$1, compared with a year earlier, and net revenue improved 8 per cent to US$1.5-billion. “My leaving is also not a reflection on the performance or health of TD Ameritrade," Mr. Hockey said.
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James Bradshaw