UPDATE: This story includes comments from analysts and more information about Thomas Shafer's track record.

If the First Foundation in Dallas is interested in selling, the beleaguered bank would appear to have found the right CEO.

Banking industry veteran Thomas Shafer, 66, is coming out of retirement to take the reins from longtime CEO Scott Kavanaugh, the bank announced Friday. Notably, Shafer spent the last decade of his career leading a spate of banks through acquisitions until he stepped away from the industry in 2022.

Kavanaugh, who helped found First Foundation and has served in leadership positions there for 17 years, resigned from his C-suite role and board position Thursday. In a prepared statement, he said he's confident the $13.4 billion-asset bank will "thrive" under Shafer's leadership.

The incoming CEO is inheriting the role at a precarious time, as First Foundation works on executing a strategy overhaul.

In July, Fortress Investment Group led a $228 million capital infusion to provide some balance-sheet flexibility after an outsized exposure to long-term, fixed-rate multifamily loans put pressure on earnings as interest rates shot up.

The bank has since promised a laundry list of operational changes, including slimming down its commercial real estate book, building up its core deposits, increasing its cushion for loans going sour and beefing up its commercial lending in Texas and Florida.

But Matthew Clark, an analyst at Piper Sandler, wrote in a note Friday that with its new, seasoned CEO, First Foundation could be ready to mix up its strategy again.

And Terry McEvoy, an analyst at Stephens who covered the banks Shafer used to lead, said the new CEO has shown an ability to build and sell banks in deals that benefit shareholders.

"When I look back at the banks he's worked with, they were of all shapes and sizes, involved in different lending areas and niches," McEvoy said. "So his background … .really is unique. The one consistent theme is that almost all those banks have been acquired."

McEvoy said he could only speak to Shafer's past performance since he doesn't currently cover First Foundation.

In 2013, Shafer was working at Talmer Bank in Michigan when it acquired First Place Bank, whose holding company filed for bankruptcy. Shafer was named CEO of First Place to oversee the troubled bank's integration and repair. Two years later, Talmer merged with Chemical Bank, where Shafer eventually became CEO again.

In 2019, Shafer landed as vice chairman of TCF Financial and CEO of its subsidiary, TCF National Bank, following that company's merger with Chemical. When TCF was subsequently bought by Huntington Bancshares in 2021, Shafer spent a year and a half as the bank's co-president of commercial banking and senior executive vice president before retiring.