First BanCorp announces appointment of new COO
Donald Kafka
Aurelio Alemán, president of First BanCorp, announced the appointment Wednesday of Donald L. Kafka as executive vice-president and chief operating officer.
The main responsibility of the COO will be to lead the organizational alignment and the execution of its strategic plan to ensure a consistent and cohesive vision between all support areas and technology, capital and marketing investments, business strategies and the short and long term goals of the corporation.
“Donald was born and raised in Puerto Rico and he has a deep understanding and appreciation of our community’s history and the needs of the people who live here. He also has broad industry knowledge and experience, having spent over 30 years in the banking industry, and, in his previous roles, has successfully executed strategies to drive organic growth while improving margins and capital efficiency,” said Alemán.
This position will be directly supervising the areas of banking operations, marketing and public relations, human resources, real estate and technology and enterprise architecture.
With this newly created position, First BanCorp expects to maximize its growth opportunities within the markets it serves, aligning its human capital, operations, technology, marketing and public relations investments, in support to its business strategies.
“His broad-based background ideally suit him to ensure our operations continue to support our planned growth in our three markets,” he added.
Kafka has vast experience in the local and international banking industry including various top leading positions in different markets in institutions such as Citibank and First Southern BanCorp. Through his professional career of more than 30 years, he has been in charge of a variety of groups in business units, financial and support areas. Before joining FirstBank, he was the general manager of international operations for Banesco International Corporation in Florida.
