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Things were going downhill for David Quinn when he met his future wife\u2014or such might be the obvious punchline to punctuate Quinn\u2019s disclosure that he met his wife on a ski vacation. Still, Quinn lets us know that the timing of his match being made was in sync with the escalating financial crisis of the late 2000s\u2014a grim environment that quickly fogged over the career trajectories of many banking executives.  

Quinn, who was then head of FP&A for Citigroup\u2019s UK retail banking operations, found that the timing of the growing crisis was to exact a stiff price. Along with five other \u201chandpicked\u201d Citigroup executives, he had recently completed an executive MBA program specially designed by Citigroup to springboard the bank\u2019s next generation of leaders into upper management roles. However, regardless of the degree status of its targets, Citigroup\u2019s leadership development effort suddenly lost its spring.

\u201cFor me, the promised leadership role turned out to be CFO of Norway, which was not a big business for Citigroup at the time and at best would have been a sidestep,\u201d comments Quinn, who opted instead to leave Citigroup and subsequently move to the United States with his new American fianc\xe9e.

Quinn doesn\u2019t appear to have ever second-guessed his paucity of aspiration to be CFO of Norway. In September of 2009, he accepted a position with Bank of the West, where within only a few months he was appointed head of FP&A.  

Despite his successful employment transition, Quinn still seems mindful of the economic uncertainty that gripped the late 2000s.

In fact, he recalls staring down on San Francisco Bay from Bank of the West\u2019s boardroom one day while the bank\u2019s CFO, sitting across from him, tried to \u201csell him\u201d on joining the bank.

Says Quinn: \u201cMy feeling at the time was that I just needed a job.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney