Three competing banks, one market, one year
In 2018 I filled the Fresno market leader seat at California Bank & Trust, Comerica and Suncrest Bank. Three banks chasing the same clients in the same valley, and all three hired through me inside twelve months.
The California Bank & Trust seat was a succession hire. That banker is still in the chair 8 years later. The Suncrest hire brought her senior relationship manager with her, still runs Fresno as an SVP after Citizens Business Bank acquired the bank, and later became a client who hired through me herself. The Comerica hire stayed until Comerica pulled out of the Central Valley.
- 3 market leaders
- 4 hires in 12 months
- 8 years and counting
A San Francisco seat that had churned through leaders
A Bay Area community bank's new Chief Banking Officer inherited a San Francisco market with a history of leadership turnover. He'd been my client at a previous bank, so he called me first.
He gave me the brief and I called the banker I had in mind that same day. They had lunch two days later. Twenty-seven days after my first conversation with the client, the offer was accepted.
Eighteen months on, that hire has beaten his first-year production goals, settled the culture, and doubled the headcount in the office.
- 27 days to accepted offer
- Production goals beaten
- Headcount doubled
The market nobody wanted
Sacramento is overbanked, and every good banker in it already has three recruiters calling. This seat had a harder problem than competition. The market's story needed rebuilding before anyone strong would take the meeting.
I presented three candidates. The bank hired the market manager, and his right-hand senior relationship manager came with him. He's steadied the office and is building it back.
- 2 hires, 1 search
- 3 candidates presented
- His team came with him
$220 million in year one, and an honest ending
A $2B community bank hired a market executive through me to open de novo offices in Los Angeles and Northern California.
In his first year he onboarded 60 new banking relationships, brought in $220 million in deposits and loans, and hired 10 production staff.
Then the bank dropped the expansion strategy and let him go. He did everything the mandate asked of him. I'm including this one because a page with nothing but clean endings isn't worth reading.
- 60 new relationships
- $220M deposits and loans
- 10 production hires
Relationships compound. In 2023 a Chief Lending Officer at a Northern California community bank was about to hire one of my candidates when his bank merged. He didn't like the seat he inherited, so he became a candidate himself. A $10B regional recruited him. He's a client again, and we're working two team lift-outs, Sacramento and Los Angeles. That's the business: the same people over years, on whichever side of the table they're sitting.
