The Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) of Detroit has named Michael T. Pugh, president and CEO of Carver Bancorp of New York, as its new chief executive officer.
Pugh has more than 30 years of experience in banking, with a focus on expanding access to capital for underserved families, businesses, and communities. He spent more than a decade at Harlem-based Carver leading the nation’s largest publicly traded African American-operated bank, with more than $720 million in assets.
As LISC CEO, he will oversee a national network that has invested nearly $30 billion in affordable housing, small businesses, education, health, safety, and jobs in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
LISC is one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions with more than 500 employees, 38 metro area program offices, and a rural development program supporting work in 2,400 counties. In 2022, LISC deployed a record $2.8 billion to bridge gaps in health, wealth, and opportunity, prioritizing efforts to address systemic racial disparities.
“It takes someone with substantial financial and management acumen to effectively connect local programs to national strategies that advance economic opportunity and growth,” says Robert E. Rubin, LISC board chair. “Michael has demonstrated that capacity throughout his career. He is passionate about extending opportunities to people who have not had the chance to fully participate in the American economy. We look forward to him bringing his considerable skills to LISC to help us make a lasting, positive impact.”
Earlier in his career, Pugh was a senior vice president at Capital One, N.A., where he oversaw 75 banking centers and $3 billion in deposits in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president at Citizens Financial Group, leading retail banking in Michigan and Indiana and overseeing 67 banking centers.
“Finance is not just about bottom lines. It is a way for people to build a strong future for their families,” says Pugh. “It is about unlocking the opportunity to go to college, buy a home, launch a business, and age with dignity and security. The opportunity to help people create better lives and build assets, and to do so on a transformative national scale, is what attracted me to LISC. I look forward to working with the remarkable LISC team to empower even more people to thrive.”
Pugh will begin his new role as LISC CEO on Oct. 2. He succeeds Lisa Glover, a long-time LISC board member who came out of retirement in 2021 to serve as CEO and help the organization through a leadership transition at the height of the pandemic amid unprecedented growth at LISC.
A native of Detroit, Pugh graduated from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti with a bachelor’s degree in health care administration. In recent years, he has volunteered his time on boards and in organizational leadership positions, including with The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, The New York Bankers Association, The Economic Club of New York, the Community Development Bankers Association, and the Society for Financial Education & Professional Development.
