City National Hires Bankers from Comerica to Lead Tech Team

City National Bank in Los Angeles has hired two Comerica Bank veterans who cater to high-tech and biotech clients.

Rod Werner joined City National as a managing director of technology banking, while John Kreutter was named as a senior vice president of credit administration, the $25.9 billion-asset City National said Friday. Werner and Kreutter will be based in Palo Alto, Calif., and will lead a team responsible for providing technology companies and entrepreneurs with a range of credit, banking and investment products, City National, a unit of City National Corp. (CYN), said.

Werner was recently an assistant group manager for venture capital in the technology and life science division at Comerica Bank, a unit of Comerica (CMA). There he was responsible for managing relationships with venture capitalists and making loans and negotiating credit facilities with businesses.

Kreutter had been with Comerica since 1977 and was a senior credit administration manager for the bank's technology and life science division. Kreutter will report to Brian Fitzmaurice, City National's chief credit officer.

"City National banks technology companies and entrepreneurs up and down the state of California, and the addition of these outstanding leaders to our team is an important step forward in our longstanding initiative to expand business banking and wealth management relationships" to such customers, Russell Goldsmith, City National's chairman and chief executive, said in a news release.

City National has also added Laxmi Poruri, who has experience in Silicon Valley, as a private client advisor.