MIDWEST
FirstMerit Corp. of Akron has made Norman A. Bliss its community reinvestment act officer.
Mr. Bliss, a senior vice president, was the CRA officer for the $10.4 billion-asset company's northern Ohio banking operations. He succeeded Oswald P. Gordon, who has retired.
WESTNara Bancorp Inc. of Los Angeles has hired Ho Yang as the president and chief executive officer of the company and its $1.4 billion-asset Nara Bank.
Mr. Yang is the Korea division manager at Bank of New York. Nara Bancorp said he will succeed Benjamin Hong as soon as he finds a successor for his current job, but no later than the end of the first quarter.
Mr. Hong will retire but will remain a director at the company and the bank.
Pacific Continental Bank of Eugene, Ore., has promoted three executives and hired its first corporate controller.
Michael Reynolds, the bank's chief financial officer, and Mitch Hagstrom, who was the manager of client relations, were promoted from senior to executive vice president. Mr. Hagstrom was also made the director of Lane County operations.
Daniel Hempy, an executive vice president, has been named the director of Portland operations. He was hired two years ago to lead Pacific Continental's expansion into that market.
The new controller, Bruce W. Barfuss, was a vice president and the treasurer of Pioneer Bank. In November of last year FirstBank NW Corp. bought Pioneer's parent, Oregon Trail Financial Corp.
Pacific Continental is a $461 million-asset unit of Pacific Continental Corp.
Pacific Premier Bank of Costa Mesa, Calif., has promoted Edward Wilcox to chief lending officer and executive vice president.
He was the chief credit officer and a senior vice president of the $419 million-asset unit of Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc.
Bruce Larson was hired to succeed Mr. Wilcox as the chief credit officer. As a U.S. Bank vice president, he structured and underwrote credits with principal balances as large as $30 million.
Epic Bancorp of San Rafael, Calif., said Mark Garwood would become the sole chief executive officer of its $406 million-asset Tamalpais Bank on Dec. 31.
He now shares the job with Kit Cole, Epic's CEO and chairwoman.
Mr. Garwood will remain Tamalpais' president, a job he has held for nine years. He became a co-CEO in April.
