BayCom Corp., the holding company for Walnut Creek, California-based United Business Bank, has hired three PacWest alums to steer the bank during a strategic shift emphasizing growth by acquisition.
William Black Jr. began serving as executive vice chair at BayCom and United Business, effective Monday. Meanwhile, Christopher Baron began his role as CEO, and Kevin Thompson stepped into the CFO position.
The leadership transition, announced Thursday by BayCom’s board, means United Business’ founders – CEO George Guarini, Chief Operating Officer Janet King and CFO Keary Colwell – are out, though Guarini will remain on the bank’s board.
In its release, the company noted that it had completed 10 mergers in its roughly 22-year history but that “the acquisition pipeline has been quiet for the past four years.”
That’s “a reflection of a turbulent period in the market and the Board’s disciplined unwillingness to pursue transactions that did not meet its standards on price, quality and strategic fit,” the company said.
Though the bank “has preserved a clean balance sheet and strong credit quality,” the dealmaking dry spell has “contributed to an organic growth gap and a trading multiple that does not yet fully reflect the Company’s underlying value,” BayCom said.
“The vision for this Company has not changed. The focus has always been on building a premier Western Regional Bank with real scale and presence across the key growth markets of the Western U.S.,” Lloyd Kendall Jr., the board’s chair, said in a statement. “What changed is the Board’s assessment of the tactics and the team needed to get us there.”
BayCom said it wants to execute “larger, more transformational transactions” – and its freshly minted leadership, on paper, has experienced that.
Black served as executive vice president of strategy and corporate development at PacWest, directing the sale of billions of dollars in assets from the bank in 2023 as ripples from the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and others tested market confidence.
Black also helped to secure $1.4 billion in emergency liquidity for PacWest and served as a principal in the bank’s sale to Banc of California, BayCom said.
“Our job now is to pair [United Business Bank’s] foundation with a targeted growth model, a high-performance culture, and relentless execution,” Black said in a statement. “The model gathers the clients. Culture drives the standard. Execution produces the earnings. We intend to deliver all three.”
Baron served as PacWest’s president for the Los Angeles region at the time of the Banc of California deal, according to his LinkedIn profile. After the deal, he became president of commercial and community banking for Banc of California – overseeing the lender’s branch network and commercial and middle-market banking platforms. Baron previously held roles at MUFG Union Bank and U.S. Bank – well before those lenders eventually combined.
Thompson, meanwhile, is credited with restructuring PacWest’s balance sheet and selling roughly $7 billion in loan portfolios that were labeled non-core, then designing PacWest’s merger into Banc of California. Thompson left the organization to become CFO at Heartland Financial, where he again soon found himself in a combination. Thompson would leave Heartland when its acquisition by UMB closed last year.
As part of their agreements, the outgoing executives – Guarini, King and Colwell – will remain employees of the company for 90 days but not executives, BayCom said.
For his part, Kendall credited the three founders for “buil[ding] the Company into the institution it is today.” United Business Bank counted $2.6 billion in assets as of September, along with 34 branches in five states.
In a statement, Kendall also noted three executives who are staying. United Business Bank is holding onto its chief credit officer, Terry Curley; chief lending officer, Felix Miranda; and chief risk officer, Izabella Mitchell, Kendall said.
“It has been my pleasure over the past 22 years to work with a tremendously talented group of people,” Guarini said in a statement. “I know I speak for Janet and Keary as well when I say, we are looking forward to seeing where this new management team will take the Bank we started in 2004.”
The wider market may need more convincing. BayCom stock dropped 11.1% on Friday, the day after the leadership transition was announced.
“The stock had traded on the premise the company was positioned to sell, while the new management team is focused on organic growth,” Timothy Coffey, a managing director at Brean Capital, wrote in a note seen by American Banker.
