WEST
Citizens Business Bank in Ontario, Calif., has hired Marquitos Cruz as a vice president in the credit management division and Orest J. Gause 3d as a vice president and asset-based financing officer.
Mr. Cruz was an assistant vice president and credit officer at Union Bank of California in San Francisco. Before that he had been a business banking officer at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. He has 12 years of banking experience.
Mr. Gause was a vice president and commercial banking officer at Tokai Bank of California in Los Angeles, where he marketed new banking relationships. Before that he had held the same posts at Sanwa Bank California in Los Angeles. He has 16 years of banking experience.
Citizens Business Bank has $2.2 billion of assets.
California Community Bancshares in San Francisco has hired Anat Bird to be president and chief executive officer, and it appointed her to the board of directors.Ms. Bird was the northern California regional head at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco for four years. Before that she had been the Minneapolis region head at Norwest Bank Minnesota, which was renamed Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota last year after Norwest bought Wells.
Still earlier she had been the chief operating officer for two years at Roosevelt Financial Group of Chesterfield, Mo., which Mercantile Bancorp. in St. Louis acquired in 1997.
Before that she had been a managing director, the chief financial officer, and treasurer of Bay Loan and Investment Bank in East Greenwich, R.I., a subsidiary of Colonial Penn Group of Philadelphia.
She has 20 years of banking experience, including jobs at BDO Seidman in New York, Arthur Andersen in New York, and Marine Midland Bank of Buffalo (which was renamed HSBC Bank USA in 1999).
California Community has $1.2 billion of assets.
Columbia Bancorp in The Dalles, Ore., has announced that Roger Christensen, an executive vice president and the chief operating officer, will be promoted in May to president and chief executive officer of the company and its Columbia River Bank.He is to succeed Terry L. Cochran, who plans to retire May 15. Mr. Cochran, who has worked at Columbia Bancorp for 20 years, plans to remain on the board of directors.
Mr. Christensen, 43, joined the $422 million-asset company in 1999 with the titles he now holds. Before that he had been a vice president and the manager of the main Bend branch of Bank of the Cascades in Bend, Ore., where he worked for nine years.
He has 19 years of banking experience, including jobs at BankAmerica Corp. (now part of Bank of America Corp.) and Benjamin Franklin Savings and Loan in Portland, Ore.
MIDDLE ATLANTICSandy Spring National Bank of Maryland in Olney has hired Sharon Murphy as a vice president and the director of corporate communications.
She is in charge of planning and directing the $1.7 billion-asset bank's advertising and public relations activities.
Ms. Murphy was the marketing communications manager at PriceInteractive, a Reston, Va., speech application provider. She has 12 years of marketing experience.
SOUTHWESTSuperior Federal Bank of Fort Smith, Ark., has hired Duane K. Bickings for the newly created post of chief commercial banking officer.
He is based in Little Rock, Ark., and oversees commercial lending and deposit and cash management services for small-business customers. He reports to Marvin Scott, president and chief operating officer of the $1.6 billion-asset bank.
Mr. Bickings was the commercial banking market executive for central Arkansas at Bank of America Corp. He had joined NationsBank Corp. (which later merged with BankAmerica Corp. to form what is now Bank of America) in 1997 when it bought his previous employer, Worthen Bank and Trust Co. in Little Rock. He joined Worthen 17 years ago as a commercial lending officer.
He has 22 years of commercial lending experience.
