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BofA’s Former Chief Now Running Sunwest

Orange County’s former top bank official has been tapped to run Tustin-based Sunwest Bank.

Tara Balfour, former president of Bank of America Corp.’s OC operation and head of its statewide commercial banking unit, recently was named executive managing director in charge of running Sunwest’s operations.

Balfour joined Sunwest as a board member in May.

Sunwest’s interim chief executive, Irving Beimler, has been running the bank since last August. Beimler is a senior executive with Washington, D.C.-based Hovde Financial Inc., which owns about 70% of Sunwest along with other partners. He joined Sunwest’s board in May 2004.

Beimler has been flying back and forth between Orange County and Washington weekly to run the bank and take care of his Hovde duties.

Balfour said she talks with him daily.

Two years ago Balfour stepped down from Bank of America to spend more time with her family.

She’s since worked on a few projects, such as consulting on a new private equity fund geared toward women-owned businesses and a Yorba Linda-based homebuilding company she helped form, called Casamar Communities Inc.

Balfour said she recently sold her stake in Casamar to partner and former Toll Brothers Inc. executive Augustine P. Flores, who plans to begin building his first home project early next year.

Sunwest has posted relatively flat growth in the past few years, while other local banks have grown bigger.

The bank reported assets of $296 million at the end of June, down about 2.5% from a year earlier. Its profit was $924,000, down nearly 28% from a year earlier, on a 2% rise in net interest income to $8.1 million.

The bank laid off about 15 employees during the past year. It reported 60 workers in a recent regulatory filing.

“We are in the process of finalizing our strategic plan, and bringing on the talent to take it to the next level,” Balfour said.

One priority for Balfour: boosting Sunwest’s business lending while cutting back on home loans.

Founded in 1970, Sunwest is the oldest bank in OC. But the past few years have seen upheaval in its senior executive ranks amid a decline in loan volume.

Total loans fell about 6% to $170 million in the second quarter versus the March quarter. Sunwest, the sixth largest OC-based bank by assets, is one of the few to see loans fall this year.

Marshall Laitsch took over as Sunwest’s chief executive in 2003 with a mission of rekindling the bank’s slowing asset growth. His goal was to grow business lending.

A year ago, Laitsch was let go, according to a Sunwest press release. That’s when Beimler stepped in.

Meanwhile, Sunwest named John Michel chief financial officer in February. Michel replaced Frank E. Smith. Smith left Sunwest to pursue other business interests.

Balfour: 18 Years at BofA

Balfour, meanwhile, departed Bank of America after 18 years with the county’s biggest bank by deposits.

At the time of her departure, Balfour wrote in a letter to friends and colleagues that her near-term plans included taking a “pause from corporate life to devote more time to my family and evaluate my future career plans.”

Balfour was replaced as market president by Kim Patrick Burdick, who also kept his position as head of Southland premier banking for Bank of America out of Newport Beach.

Balfour started at BofA as a small business loan officer in 1985 after graduating from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s in business administration.

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