Arlen Gelbard

General Counsel

Cross River Bank

Arlen W. Gelbard is General Counsel at Cross River. He has an extensive portfolio of expertise advising, managing, and operating in dynamic and complex legal and regulatory environments for global, publicly-traded financial institutions, as well as smaller, private entities.

Prior to joining Cross River, Mr. Gelbard served as Senior Advisor at Treliant Risk Advisors, where he consulted on a wide variety of complex and sensitive compliance and risk management issues.

He served as President of E*TRADE Bank and later became General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer of E*TRADE Financial Corporation, where he led diversification and growth.

Formerly in his career, Mr. Gelbard was General Counsel of Acacia Federal Savings Bank, where he led the merger into Stifel Bank & Trust and became President of the Mid-Atlantic region for Stifel. Mr. Gelbard was Chief Administrative Officer at Jefferson National Financial Corp., now part of Nationwide Insurance. As part of his diverse background in financial services, he served as an Executive Advisor at Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity investor. Previously, he was partner of the law firm Hofheimer Gartlir & Gross in New York City.

He holds a JD and MBA from Boston University, as well as an AB, cum laude, in Politics from Brandeis University. He is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bars. Mr. Gelbard previously served on Operation Hope’s Global Board of Directors and currently serves as Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Board, where he provides the management team with leadership and guidance, strongly advocating for programs dedicated to financial literacy and economic empowerment in underserved communities.

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