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Mehdi Ghomeshi has stepped aside as president at BankUnited Financial Corp., following two years in which he launched and directed the company's selftouted restructuring program.
But analysts anticipate that Ghomeshi, as executive vice chairman, will remain a strong hand at BankUnited and thus help the Coral Gables-based savings bank continue to expand its commercial and consumer banking operations.
That analysis followed BankUnited's announcement after close of trading April 20 that Ghomeshi had been "elevated to the position of executive vice chairman."
BankUnited (Nasdaq: BKUNA) said Ghomeshi "requested this position because he would prefer to focus upon planning and strategic direction as opposed to the dayto-day operations."
BankUnited Chairman and CEO Alfred Camner assumed the duties of president and COO from Ghomeshi.
"I will be focusing on the strategic direction of the company going forward," Ghomeshi said. "I will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the bank. We have been working on this [change] for a couple of weeks."
Sources familiar with BankUnited said Ghomeshi requested the change partly because of health reasons. Ghomeshi, 44, suffered a heart attack in late 1999.
Sources said Ghomeshi has made a good recovery, but that he decided to step back from the demanding dayto-day duties at BankUnited, which has $4.8 billion in assets and 35 branches.
Ghomeshi said he and Camner plan to stay in their present roles "for the long term," adding that BankUnited does not plan to hire...