An Ironman now leads the in-house legal department at consumer bank SLM Corp., informally known as Sallie Mae.

The Newark, Delaware-based bank Friday named deputy general counsel Nicolas Jafarieh, who has been with the company since 2008, to the general counsel post.

Jafarieh, who has been an Ironman triathlon competitor, succeeds Laurent Lutz, who the company said is retiring. Lutz, who served as general counsel for seven years, was also an executive vice president and corporate secretary.

The company said Richard Nelson, a senior vice president and chief regulatory counsel, will assume the role of corporate secretary.

Sallie Mae said Jafarieh, who was not available for comment, most recently managed several legal areas for the bank, including corporate governance and reporting, litigation, employment and benefits, among others.

Before joining Sallie Mae, he was in private practice, first at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C., and then at his own firm.

“Nic's proven track record as a first-chair litigator and manager of complex transactions and environments prepares him for this next step,” said a statement from Raymond Quinlan, chairman and CEO of Sallie Mae.

Quinlan also thanked Lutz for his contributions and efforts “to lay the foundation for Sallie Mae's successful transformation to a customer-focused consumer bank.”

Jafarieh's “proven track record” includes some real track events. While in Washington, he was one of the founding 15 members and first president of the DC Triathlon Club in 2001. Last November he was part of a club video on YouTube in which he discussed organizing the group and helping it grow to several hundred members.

Jafarieh completed the Ironman Triathlon in Madison, Wisconsin, according to a 2005 alumni newsletter from the University of Virginia School of Law.

He takes over a legal team that four years ago helped the company transform from a troubled student loan marketing association (hence, the name Sallie Mae). In 2014, the company split into two distinct entities, with Navient becoming the student loan group and assuming its liabilities while Sallie Mae became the consumer bank.

The original company had fallen under several federal investigations for its student loan and collection practices, some of which allegedly violated consumer protection laws. According to Sallie Mae's annual financial filing in February with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Navient “assumed responsibility for all liabilities” arising out of the conduct of the former company, and it faces several ongoing lawsuits.

Nevertheless, Sallie Mae remains a defendant in at least one suit filed by the Illinois attorney general against Navient and Sallie Mae in January 2017. The bank has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint against it, saying most of the conduct predated its existence.

In May 2014, the same month the company split, Sallie Mae resolved investigations by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the U.S. Department of Justice by entering into settlements. The FDIC consent decree expired a year ago, but the $60 million DOJ deal remains in effect until late September, including certain reporting and record-keeping requirements.