Glenn Gray said he’s looking forward to building up something after years of selling off things.
Gray, a bicyclist and underwater photographer who swims with sharks, recently was named president and chief executive of Tustin-based Sunwest Bank.
Before, Gray was chief operating officer at Scottsdale-based Finova Group Inc., where he worked selling off assets at the financial services company.
Sunwest has four branches catering to small businesses. It does lending, takes deposits and provides other services. Sunwest is the county’s oldest homegrown business bank.
Gray’s in a delicate position.
Eric Hovde, chairman of Sunwest and an executive of Washing-ton, D.C.-based Hovde Financial Inc., owns about 70% of Sunwest along with other partners.
In the past year, the bank has seen a shuffling of executives.
Gray replaces interim chief Irving Beimler, who had run things since August 2004. That’s when former chief executive Marshall Laitsch left the bank after joining the year before.
There’s been other executive changes.
In February, the bank named John Michel chief financial officer to replace Frank E. Smith, who left to pursue other business interests, according to Sunwest.
Tara Balfour, former market president for Bank of America Corp. in Orange County and head of its statewide commercial banking unit, was recruited earlier this year to help run Sunwest as interim executive managing director.
Balfour plans to step back from day-to-day operations and remain on Sunwest’s board, giving Gray some transitional help to get him adjusted to the bank’s culture.
Gray “brings a level of sophistication that you almost won’t find in any community bank,” Hovde said. “Running a company (Finova) that size, and under duress, needs a calm hand.”
Gray joined on Nov. 28. His first order of business was to privately meet each of Sunwest’s 70 workers. He said he did so to get a sense of who they are, where they want to be in the bank and to share with them his goals.
“That’s how you find out what’s going on,” he said. “You also find out that there’s a lot of great ideas within the employees. You just have to ask them.”
Gray joined Finova a decade ago as a business development officer in downtown Los Angeles.
For eight years before, he held posts with Wells Fargo & Co., working in its retail, corporate banking and investment services divisions.
By early 2001, the once mighty Finova, with $14 billion in assets, ran into trouble. It filed for bankruptcy and exited that same year, only to get socked by the financial fallout from the terrorist attacks.
What seemed like a well-laid plan to restructure around a portfolio of aircraft and hotels began to unravel for Finova.
By then, Gray was commuting between his Laguna Niguel home and Scottsdale.
He was charged with closing businesses and pursuing divestitures in a “controlled liquidation” that eventually led to his own departure in June with most of the heavy lifting completed.
In his first five years with Finova, Gray worked on acquisitions and building the business.
Acquisitions aren’t out of the question at Sunwest, he said. But growing the bank on its own in the next five years is a priority, he said.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about building a business,” Gray said.
Growing Sunwest won’t be easy. The bank has seen uneven growth and declining assets, deposits and loans as other small business banks have flourished.
Sunwest counted $290 million in assets as of the third quarter.
Deposits fell 2.2% from a year earlier to $250 million in the third quarter, after rising 8% in the second quarter.
The largest homegrown banks and thrifts here saw a 7% gain in deposits in the latest quarter.
Loans at Sunwest have fallen steadily. They declined nearly 8% to $166 million in the third quarter.
Gray said he plans to hire a chief credit officer by early next year. He’s temporarily filling in on the job, which has been vacant since April.
The move is part of a bid by Gray to fill critical jobs. He said he also plans to hone Sunwest’s focus on its target market of business owners.
Gray said he’s up to the challenge.
He said he recently got too close while photographing a dozen whitetip reef sharks without a cage near Palau in the South Pacific. Gray spooked the sharks and himself, he said.
“It has prepared me for this,” Gray said. “My mission is clear. My strategy is clear and empowerment is there. All I have to do is perform.”
