Meet & Greet

Showtime for Bradshaw

For the first time in 20 years, Broadway Financial in Los Angeles has a new CEO.

Wayne-Kent Bradshaw, who joined the company in 2009 as president and chief operating officer, was promoted to replace Paul C. Hudson, Broadway's CEO since 1992. Hudson remains chairman of the $422 million-asset company and of its thrift subsidiary, Broadway Federal Bank.

The move comes at a challenging time for Broadway, which has been ordered to raise capital and reduce problem loans. The thrift, which caters mainly to inner-city neighborhoods, lost nearly $9 million in the first three quarters of 2011, according to FDIC data.

Bradshaw knows a thing or two about dealing with regulators. He is a former deputy superintendent at the California Department of Financial Institutions. His long career also has included stops at Washington Mutual Bank, where he was a regional president, and at Family Savings Bank in L.A., where he was CEO. Because Broadway is under a cease-and-desist order, the thrift's regulators must approve any leadership changes. The Fed already has signed off on Bradshaw's appointment, and the OCC has given preliminary approval, with final approval expected this month.

Activist Investor

We presume Lloyd Blankfein was just being sarcastic back when he said he was doing God's work. But the Goldman Sachs CEO isn't joking when it comes to preaching his views on gay marriage. With a serious face and a stern voice, Blankfein, in a recent video for the Human Rights Campaign, says equality "is just good business, and is the right thing to do. Join me and the majority of Americans who support marriage equality." A spokesman for the HRC, which promotes equal rights for people of all sexual orientations, reportedly said that the group sought Blankfein in part because he's "an unexpected messenger." That probably works in Blankfein's favor, too.

The Slate

The Democrats have Charlotte, the GOP has Tampa Bay and the Independent Community Bankers of America have Nashville. That's where the ICBA board votes March 11 on the nominees for this year's executive committee.

William Loving Jr., president and CEO of Pendleton Community Bank in Franklin, W.Va., was nominated chairman-elect, while John Buhrmaster (pictured above), president of 1st National Bank in Scotia, N.Y., is in line to be ICBA's vice chairman.

Other nominees include Nancy Ruyle, president and CEO of Citizens Bank of Rogersville, Mo., for treasurer and Preston Kennedy, president and CEO of the Bank of Zachary, La., for at-large director. No formal vote is required, however, for Jeffrey Gerhart, president of the Bank of Newman Grove, Neb. He automatically becomes ICBA chairman after spending a full year as chairman-elect.

A CEO's CEO

If your prized CEO goes missing in Florida, check with John Corbett at CenterState Bank.

He runs one of Florida's most aggressive acquirers of failed banks, but the hallmark of his strategy is what he does before he buys a bank-he first hires an executive to run it.

That's exactly what happened when Corbett hired Gilbert Pomar, CEO of The Jacksonville Bank. Seven months later, when CenterState acquired another Jacksonville institution, First Guaranty Bank and Trust Co., in an FDIC-assisted deal, guess who was put in charge of it?

Corbett has brought on at least two other community bank CEOs from markets where CenterState was either planning to enter to eyeing a failed bank.

"It goes back to the philosophy of our business, and we always build banks around the people," Corbett says.