MIAMI LAKES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 23, 2025--
BankUnited Inc. (NYSE: BKU) announced its succession plan for the role of chief financial officer. James G. Mackey will join the company as senior executive vice president, reporting to BankUnited chairman, president and CEO Rajinder P. Singh, effective August 15, 2025. He will assume the role of chief financial officer on November 1, 2025. Mackey will succeed longtime CFO Leslie Lunak, who plans to retire effective January 1, 2026, after a distinguished tenure with the company.
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Mackey is a seasoned business executive with extensive experience as a CFO for a variety of highly regarded financial institutions, helping to lead them through transformative periods of growth across finance, operations, risk and controls. Most recently, Mackey served as the CFO for Wells Fargo’s consumer lending division. Previously, Mackey was the CFO for Freddie Mac and Ally Financial and was a divisional CFO for Bank of America’s corporate investments, corporate treasury and private equity divisions.
“We are delighted to welcome Jim to BankUnited as our new chief financial officer, effective this November. With over three decades of experience leading some of the industry’s most respected names, Jim brings a wealth of expertise that will be instrumental as we continue to grow and evolve,” said Singh. “His proven ability to drive performance and deliver value, while cultivating strong relationships with stakeholders, makes him an excellent addition to our leadership team.”
During Mackey’s time with Wells Fargo, he led the finance team supporting the newly formed consumer lending division, assisting with successful strategic reviews to optimize earnings, minimize operational risk and increase enterprise value. As CFO of Freddie Mac, Mackey helped guide the strategic execution of an enterprise-wide transformation to modernize the institution, improve customer service, adopt modernized capital standards and improve the overall housing finance system.
Mackey joined Ally Financial shortly after Ally became a bank holding company. As CFO, he helped transform the company into a leading diversified digital bank, ultimately laying the foundation for significant capital raises. At Bank of America, he led a global team through the financial crisis, with finance responsibility for the parent company and several banking subsidiaries. He played a key role in business, finance and treasury activities related to several major acquisitions. He began his career at PwC, after earning his master’s in accounting and bachelor’s in business administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The transition comes as Lunak announces her retirement. Lunak joined BankUnited in 2010 and assumed the CFO role in 2013. Before rising to her current position, she held the roles of executive vice president, chief accounting officer and senior vice president, finance. During her tenure as CFO, which saw the bank’s total assets grow from $12 billion to over $35 billion, Lunak was at the forefront of a successful enterprise-wide initiative aimed at strengthening BankUnited’s core business model, streamlining its organizational structure and broadening its portfolio of products and services.
“As an integral member of our C-suite management team, Leslie has made many significant and lasting contributions that have helped to transform BankUnited into a leading national commercial bank,” said Singh. “Leslie has strengthened BankUnited’s capital position, led the implementation of a new credit loss accounting standard, guided impactful cost savings and revenue-generating initiatives and helped steer the company through periods of market volatility and a pandemic. We are grateful for her 15 years of dedication and commitment and wish her well as she begins a new chapter.”
BankUnited, N.A. is a national bank and one of the largest independent depository institutions headquartered in Florida, now operating in Florida, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Morristown, New Jersey and Charlotte, North Carolina. BankUnited provides a broad range of consumer and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions.
For more information, call (877) 779-2265 or visit www.BankUnited.com.
About BankUnited, N.A.
BankUnited, Inc. (NYSE: BKU), with total assets of $35.5 billion at June 30, 2025, is the bank holding company of BankUnited, N.A., a national bank headquartered in Miami Lakes, Florida, with operations in Florida, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Morristown, New Jersey, and Charlotte, North Carolina. BankUnited provides a full range of consumer and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions, and offers certain commercial lending and deposit products through national platforms. For additional information, call (877) 779-2265 or visit www.BankUnited.com. BankUnited can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/BankUnited.official, LinkedIn @BankUnited and on X @BankUnited.
James G. Mackey will join BankUnited as senior executive vice president, effective August 15, 2025. He will assume the role of chief financial officer on November 1, 2025.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado discussed her country's future with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, even though he has dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela and signaled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s No. 2. Along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations and was set to deliver her first state of the union speech Thursday.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She also had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had been looking forward to the lunchtime meeting with Machado and called her “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela. But Leavitt also said Trump's opinion of Machado had not changed, calling it "a realistic assessment."
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
Leavitt went on to say that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
Leavitt said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado," the press secretary said, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
Machado spent about two and a half hours at the White House but left without answering questions on whether she'd offered to give her Nobel prize to Trump, saying only “gracias."
After her White House stop, Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate. Her Washington visit began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela.
It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela's interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and that Rodríguez's government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Rodríguez has adopted a less strident position toward Trump then she did immediately after Maduro's ouster, suggesting that she can make the Republican administration's “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, work for Venezuela — at least for now.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize. She has since thanked Trump, though her offer to share the honor with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gestures to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado smiles on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
