Preferred Bank (PFBC) in Los Angeles has added the role of president to the responsibilities of its chief operating officer, Wellington Chen.
Chen has been COO since June 2011. Before joining the $1.4 billion-asset Preferred Bank, he was an executive vice president and director of corporate banking for East-West Bank in Pasadena, Calif., where he oversaw a significant portion of the loan and deposit production activities.
"Although Mr. Chen has only been with us for just over one year, he has proven to be an extremely critical part of the Preferred Bank team," Li Yu, chairman and chief executive of Preferred, said in a news release Wednesday. "He has helped to reinvigorate the bank's production staff and has personally driven a great deal of the bank's growth in new customers over that period."
