Real estate developer and investor George Argyros has joined the board of the parent company of Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bank, the county’s largest homegrown bank.
Argyros’ appointment expands the board of Pacific Mercantile Bancorp to seven members.
Other directors include Chief Executive Ray Dellerba, investor George Wells, lawyer Warren Finley and others.
Bank regulators have signed off on Argyros’ appointment. He’s also a Pacific Mercantile investor and customer, according to Dellerba.
Argyros owns less than 5% of the company’s lightly traded stock, which has a market value of about $30 million.
Argyros is chairman and chief executive of Costa Mesa-based Arnel & Affiliates, an owner of offices, industrial buildings and shopping centers. He’s also general partner in Costa Mesa private equity firm Westar Capital.
From 2001 to 2004, Argyros was U.S. ambassador to Spain under President George W. Bush.
He’s also a director of Santa Ana-based First American Corp., Kansas City-based DST Systems Inc. and Arlington, Texas-based Petmate.
Argyros also is a trustee of Chapman University in Orange and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
He’s chairman or a director of several nonprofits, including The Beckman Foundation and the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation.
Pacific Mercantile is the largest bank based in the county with about $1.1 billion in assets.
