Ex-CEO Is Minding His Business
Two years after riding into the sunset as Great Western Bank’s final chief executive, John Maher has largely disappeared from the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles business worlds.
He walked away from his job with stock options valued at almost $14 million in 1997 and has led a quiet but comfortable life since then.
“I’m really spending most of my time kind of taking care of my own business,” Maher said in a recent interview from the office he maintains near his Bel-Air home. “I’m involved in a couple of boards, one of which involves some personal investments. I’m spending a little more time with my wife and children, having a little more fun.”
The 56-year-old former CEO joined Great Western as president in 1986, after a seven-year stint as managing director at the Los Angeles office of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb.
He was at Great Western when it moved from its Beverly Hills headquarters in 1992 to its new Chatsworth campus--now home to Washington Mutual’s largest regional office in Southern California.
Maher became Great Western’s chief executive in 1995 and stepped down after the Washington Mutual takeover two years ago. Most of his close associates from Great Western are now at other companies, and he hasn’t talked with Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger in quite some time.
Although he sits on the board of directors of Bessemer Holdings LP, a New York-based private equity investment firm, Maher said a good chunk of his time now goes to his two favorite pursuits--skiing at his home in Colorado and fly-fishing at his ranch in Mammoth.
“I’m taking care of my own personal stuff--a fair amount of fly-fishing and skiing. As a matter of fact, I’m currently recuperating from a ski accident,” he said, referring to a broken ankle he suffered on a recent jaunt.
As to the future, Maher said he’s happy where he is right now and would only get back into the world of finance if the right opportunity came along.
“I haven’t really thought about anything,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of conversations and don’t feel at this point that that’s where my head is.”
