Pacific Capital hires Cal Fed veterans
Pacific Capital Bancorp, the parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust that was recapitalized and taken over by Texas banking heavyweights Gerald Ford and Carl Webb earlier this year, is bringing aboard a new group of executives that helped Webb and Ford build out their last big venture.
Mike Walker and Ken Shannon are joining as chief lending officer and chief risk officer, respectively. Both will report straight to Webb, who took over as CEO of Pacific Capital earlier this year after he and Ford pumped $500 million into the ailing bank holding firm and acquired almost 90 percent of it.
Walker and Shannon both previously held executive positions at California Federal Bank, the institution Webb and Ford sold to Citibank for $6 billion in 2002 after rescuing its components from the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s.
Reporting to Walker will be Keith Wilton, who will oversee lending activities. He comes from Greater Bay Bancorp. Scott Givans, the new chief credit officer who served at Greater Bay Bancorp and Citibank, will report to Shannon.
As several Webb-Ford insiders stepped into executive positions at Pacific Capital, the bank said in a separate news release that Tom Thomas, who served as CEO of the tri-counties’ biggest independent bank from 2000 to 2007, will come out of retirement to manage the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust branch on East Valley Road in Montecito.
On Dec. 28, Pacific Capital also announced that its 1-for-100 reverse stock split went live at 1 p.m. California time. The split reduces the banking firm’s outstanding common shares from 3.29 billion to roughly 32.9 million, a move designed to take its share price from the 29 cents it closed at on Dec. 28 to the $29 range. Shares will trade under a temporary symbol of “PCBCD” on the Nasdaq until Jan. 27, when they revert to PCBC.
The company also said it expects its reincorporation from California to Delaware, where many public companies in the Tri-Counties are incorporated, to take effect Dec. 30.
[Clarification: Tom Thomas retired as CEO of Pacific Capital in 2007 but remained with the bank in a community relations role. This story was updated on Dec. 29.]
