Mechanics Bank of Richmond (MCHB)

[Enterprising Investor]

Mechanics Bank CEO Christa Steele out as bank goes private (6/17/15)

Mechanics Bank President and CEO Christa Steele has left the Walnut Creek, Calif.-based bank, after a Dallas investment firm acquired majority control of the bank this year.

The bank confirmed her departure on Monday. Kenneth Russell is now interim president and CEO, with the board conducting a search for a permanent successor to Steele. Steele also stepped down from the bank's board. Mechanics Bank was mum on further details about Steele's exit.

"As a matter of long-standing bank policy, we don't discuss employment matters beyond" the information already provided publicly, a Mechanics Bank spokesman said.

Steele joined Mechanics Bank in October 2013 and saw one of the most tumultuous years of the bank's 110-year history that included the family-controlled bank's ultimate sale. Her tenure also included the departure of several long-time executives.

In speaking with the San Francisco Business Times (a Bizwomen sister publication) late Monday, Steele said 2014 was a very tumultuous year indeed. Steele said the bank evaluated three different proposed transactions before selecting Ford Financial Group's offer as well as pursuing the bank's growth initiatives.

Steele says she's proud of the bank's core earnings improvement of 43 percent in 2014, which she believes is the best of any bank.

"I'm really proud of our success in 2014," Steele said. "I will be forever grateful for my time at Mechanics Bank."

As for what's next, Steele was clear: Summer vacation with her children. She made a "pinky-swear" with them, promising no talk of work before Labor Day. She said she'll consider her options later this year and decide in early 2016 on what will be the next chapter of her career. Steele says she's developed a fondness for the Bay Area.

"I could be an investment banker," Steele said, after navigating the bank's sale to Ford Financial. "Or I may run a bank again."

Back at Mechanics Bank, Russell has worked in the financial services industry for four decades. Prior to his joining the Ford Financial Group six years ago, he was a member of the managing board of directors for KPMG Germany. In that capacity, Russell led the audit-financial services group and served as the global lead partner for KPMG in the accounting firm's relationship with Deutsche Bank.

Following Russell’s service as a member of KPMG's German leadership, he was the lead financial services partner in the United States for KPMG’s Department of Professional Practice group in New York, where he focused on accounting issues relating to financial instruments, hedging and securitization.

Mechanics Bank's new majority owner, the Dallas-based investment firm Ford Financial, said on April 16 that it had offered to "now purchase all outstanding shares" of Mechanics Bank. (OTC BB: MCHB) Ford Financial closed on the purchase of a 70 percent stake in the bank at $26,832 per share on April 30.

Yahoo Finance shows the last trade in the thinly traded bank's stock occurred June 3 at a price of $26,800, with two shares changing hands that day.

Last September, Ford Financial said it planned to purchase a majority stake between 51 percent and 65 percent of the bank at $26,832 per share.

The bank's new majority owner told the San Francisco Business Times last October that it envisioned building a larger California community bank through acquisitions, with Mechanics Bank serving as the platform on which to build. Mechanics Bank is often considered the Bay Area's largest community bank, with more than $3 billion in assets and 30 branches in Northern California.

"We're not making any secrets about our ambitions," Carl Webb, a co-managing member of Ford Financial and chairman of Mechanics Bank, said in the October interview. Steele was portrayed at the time as a key ingredient in bringing those ambitions to fruition.

Webb and co-managing member Gerald Ford have a long history of investing in California banks — and selling them for big profits.

Despite Steele's departure, Webb stood by the firm's ambitions for Mechanics Bank in a statement Monday.

“This singular event does not change the fact that the bank remains totally committed to being the best premier community bank in the Bay Area while ascribing to the highest levels of professionalism and quality customer service," Webb said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2015/06/mechanics-bank-ceo-ford-financial-mchb-investors.html?page=all