Bridge Bank beefs up its exec ranks - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Last month, the bank broughr on board Peggy Bradshaw as chieg banking officer to oversee sales and clientrelationship functions. Veteran businesxs banker Al Williams joined as chiefcredi officer. Both Bradshaw and Williams previously workedat . Thomas Sa, who was chiefd financial officer when the bank openeds its doors in May has been promoted to chief risk officetr andstrategy officer. “Bridge has built a solid foundatiojn since its opening eightyyears ago,” Sa said. “Irt is now time to build upon that foundatiom with coordinated business strategies that incorporatew effective enterprise risk managementg to ensureconsistent long-term performance.
” But the San Jose-basexd business bank, which added more than $50 million to its capitalp base last year, has seen its stock plungr in the past 18 months. Shares of the bank’sx parent, , changed handw this week for $5, roughly a quarter of their price inJanuary 2008, before the burstinb credit bubble claimed several big banke as casualties. CEO Dan Myers is confident the bank was smart to take a hit to the bottom linelast year, boosting loan-lose reserves to cover 117 percent of nonperforming loansd by year-end. The move was designed to put problem loansebehind it, making it easier to pursue new businessz when the economy rebounds.
“Building the loan-losd reserves was painful in the short-term but will be beneficial inthe long-term,” Myers said. The bank’ s capital ratios and reserve levels are amonh the highest in the nationn for banks with assetsof $500 milliohn to $1.5 billion, he said. Bridge’s assets totaledf $882 as of March 31. Myers said the bank movedx early in 2008 to rein in construction lendingy after seeing the unprecedente decline in housing pricesd that beganin 2007. Bridge Bank boosted capital last year throughja $30 million public offering and raised anotherr $23.8 million through the U.S. Treasury’s Troubler Asset Relief Program.
Myers said regulators did not forcd the changes in the executive suite at the which serves the greaterBay Area, with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco.