Xavier Gutierrez has joined the board of directors at Costa Mesa-based Commercial Bank of California.
Gutierrez is chief investment officer of Downey-based Meruelo Group. He also serves as a director of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Meruelo Group Chairman and Chief Executive Alex Meruelo, who also is a director of Commercial Bank, is a majority owner of the bank.
Gutierrez takes a new seat on the Commercial Bank board, which now has 10 members.
Bala Balkrishna, founding president of the bank, serves as chairman of the board. He took the post last year, succeeding Gen. William Lyon, executive chairman of Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes, who retired after 10 years as chairman (see entry in special section, OC’s Wealthiest, starting on page 15).
He remains a director, along with his son, William H. Lyon, the homebuilder’s chief executive.
The bank has about $205 million in assets. It hired Ash Patel as president and chief executive last year, tapping the founder of Anaheim-based Premier Commercial Bank, which started in 2001 and was sold in 2012 to California United Bank in Encino for about $42 million.
