Bridge Bank beefs up its exec ranks - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Last month, the bank brought on boards Peggy Bradshaw as chief bankiny officer to oversee sales and clientrelationshi functions. Veteran business banker Al Williams joined as chiegfcredit officer. Both Bradshaw and Williams previousluy workedat . Thomas Sa, who was chief financiao officer when the bank opened its doors in May has been promoted to chief risk officeer andstrategy officer. “Bridge has built a solidf foundation since its opening eightyyears ago,” Sa “It is now time to builxd upon that foundation with coordinated business strategies that incorporatde effective enterprise risk management to ensure consistent long-term performance.
” But the San Jose-basecd business bank, which added more than $50 million to its capital base last year, has seen its stocj plunge in the past 18 months. Shares of the bank’s parent, , changed hands this week for $5, roughly a quartedr of their price inJanuarhy 2008, before the bursting credit bubble claimed several big banks as CEO Dan Myers is confident the bank was smar to take a hit to the botton line last year, boosting loan-loss reserves to covere 117 percent of nonperforming loana by year-end. The move was designed to put problen loansbehind it, making it easie to pursue new business when the economyu rebounds.
“Building the loan-loss reserves was painful in the short-termk but will be beneficial inthe long-term,” Myers The bank’s capital ratios and reserve levels are among the highest in the nation for bankxs with assets of $500 million to $1.5 billion, he Bridge’s assets totaled $882 as of March 31. Myers said the bank moves early in 2008 to rein in construction lendinhg after seeing the unprecedented decline in housingy prices that beganin 2007. Bridge Bank boostex capital last year througha $30 milliobn public offering and raised another $23.8 milliomn through the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Reliev Program.
Myers said regulators did not force the changes in the executive suite at the which serves the greaterBay Area, with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco.