Atlantic Trust Announces New Chief Fiduciary Officer and Wealth Strategies Group Leadership

ATLANTA, March 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Atlantic Trust, the U.S. private wealth management division of CIBC (NYSE: CM) (TSX: CM), today announced the following professionals have assumed expanded leadership roles:

• Paulina Mejia, managing director, has been named head of Wealth Strategies, where she will lead the Wealth Strategies Group and guide its firm-wide initiatives.
• Gabrielle D. Bailey has been named managing director and chief fiduciary officer, where she will head the Trust Committee and oversee the firm's fiduciary activities.
• Judith A. Saxe, managing director, has been named director of research and education for Wealth Strategies, a new role created to lead firm-wide education initiatives concerning various topics in trusts, estates, multigenerational legacy planning and more.

This announcement comes as Linda S. Beerman transitions toward retirement. Beerman has been with Atlantic Trust for 15 years, where she served on the firm-wide Operating Committee and was the head of Wealth Strategies and chief fiduciary officer.

Beerman's visionary leadership proved instrumental in the development of Atlantic Trust's legacy offering and G2G Impact and Women's CIRCLE initiatives. She will continue working with Atlantic Trust in an advisory role.

"With her passion and vision, Linda has made many impactful contributions on behalf of our clients and to the industry throughout her very distinguished career," said Jack Markwalter, chairman and CEO of Atlantic Trust. "On behalf of the entire Atlantic Trust family, I would like to thank Linda for her outstanding leadership. Linda has created a lasting legacy with our clients and our firm. I would also like to congratulate Paulina, Gaby and Judy on their new leadership roles. Each of these talented and dedicated professionals has demonstrated a commitment to serving our clients' wealth management needs with the highest level of professionalism and care. We look forward to deepening our relationships with multi-generational client families through their continued efforts to expand our fiduciary and wealth strategies offerings."

Mejia, who joined Atlantic Trust in 2011, will continue to serve as a senior wealth strategist in the firm's New York office. She has been instrumental in developing integrated wealth plans for clients and deepening relationships with key intermediary referral sources. She came to the firm from Brown Brothers Harriman & Co's New York wealth management office, after having practiced law at Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, bringing more than 15  years of trusts and estates practice and advisory experience working with high net worth clients and related tax-exempt institutions. Mejia graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Boston College and received her Juris Doctor degree from the Boston College Law School.

With 16 years of industry experience, Bailey has been with Atlantic Trust since 2003 and last year moved from the firm's legal department, where she was very involved in the fiduciary support area, to the Wealth Strategies Group to assume the role of director of Delaware Trust Services. Bailey will continue in this role as she takes on these additional responsibilities for the firm. Prior to joining Atlantic Trust, Bailey was an associate in Alston & Bird LLP's financial services group. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in history from the University of Richmond and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Saxe will continue to be an integral part of the Boston wealth management team as she assumes broader responsibilities for Wealth Strategies. She has 26 years of experience counseling high net worth individuals, corporate executives, closely held business owners and multinationals on various estate plan designs and strategies. Saxe joined Atlantic Trust in 2003 from Ernst & Young LLP, where she was the New England area director of estate and business succession planning. She currently serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Estate Planning Councils (NAEPC) following a 10-year-long tenure on the executive committee and board of directors of The Boston Estate Planning Council (BEPC), where she served as president in 2013-2014. Saxe earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law.

About Atlantic Trust
Atlantic Trust is one of the nation's leading private wealth management firms, offering integrated wealth management for high net worth individuals, families, foundations and endowments. The firm considers clients' financial, trust, estate planning and philanthropic needs in developing customized asset allocation and investment management strategies. Experienced professionals deliver a broad range of solutions, including proprietary investment offerings and a robust open architecture platform of traditional and alternative managers. The firm has achieved 35 straight quarters of growth—including a record $2 billion of net positive client asset inflows in 2015, coming from clients adding assets to their existing accounts and from new business. Atlantic Trust operates in 13 full-service locations throughout the U.S., with 298 employees nationwide and $26.9 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2015. For more information, visit www.atlantictrust.com.

About CIBC
CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution. Through our Retail and Business Banking, Wealth Management and Capital Markets businesses, CIBC provides a full range of financial products to individual, small business, commercial, corporate and institutional clients in Canada and around the world. CIBC acquired Atlantic Trust, a premier U.S. private wealth management firm, in January 2014. You can find other news releases and information about CIBC in our Media Centre on our corporate website at www.cibc.com.

SOURCE Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management