CEOCFO-Members Login
Become A Member!
Pacific
Premier Bancorp
Print Version
|
This is a printer friendly page!
Pacific
Premier Bancorp turnaround complete, successful transition on going, poised for further
growth
Financial
Regional Pacific Banks
(PPBI-NASDAQ)
Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc.
1600 Sunflower Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Phone: 714-431-4000
Steven R. Gardner
President and CEO
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
Published - May
11, 2007
BIO:
Steven R. Gardner is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific
Premier Bancorp, Inc. and it’s subsidiary Pacific Premier Bank. Pacific Premier
Bancorp, Inc. is a $725 million financial institution headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.
Mr. Gardner has served in management positions in credit administration, portfolio
management, lending production and operations as well as risk management for the past 24
years. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Gardner served as a Senior Vice President at
Hawthorne Financial responsible for credit and lending administration and was part of the
management team that led a turn around of that institution in the mid 1990’s.
Mr. Gardner holds a B.A. from California State University Fullerton.
When Mr. Gardner and his management team assumed responsibility for Pacific Premier in
late 2000 the company was under-capitalized, deemed a troubled institution and was subject
to various regulatory enforcement documents. Under Mr. Gardner’s leadership, the
management team has engineered a successful turn around of the company through the
implementation of a commercial banking business model.
Mr. Gardner is President and a Director of the California Independent Bankers and a member
of the Board of Directors for Independent Community Bankers of America. He is actively
involved within the community and serves as the Director of Capital Projects for Saint
Jeanne de Lestonnac Catholic School in Santa Ana, California. Mr. Gardner resides in
Orange County California with his wife and their five children.
Company Profile: Pacific Premier Bancorp, Inc.
(“PPBI”) is the California-based holding company for Pacific Premier Bank, a California
chartered commercial bank. We conduct business throughout Southern California from our
seven locations in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino. We operate six
full service depository branches in the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Los
Alamitos, Newport Beach, San Bernardino and Seal Beach, and a Small Business
Administration (“SBA”) loan production office in Pasadena.
We provide banking services within our targeted markets in Southern California to
businesses, including the owners and employees of those businesses, professionals, real
estate investors, non-profit organizations and consumers. Through our branches and our web
site at www.PPBI.net on the internet, we offer a broad array of deposit products and
services for both commercial and consumer customers including checking, money market and
savings accounts, cash management services, electronic banking, and on-line bill payment.
We offer an array of loan products, such as commercial business loans, lines of credit,
commercial real estate loans, SBA loans, residential home loans, and home equity loans. At
December 31, 2006, we had consolidated total assets of $731.2 million, net loans of
$605.1 million, total deposits of $339.5 million, consolidated total stockholders’
equity of $58.3 million, and the bank was considered a “well-capitalized”
financial institution for regulatory capital purposes.
CEOCFO: Mr.
Gardner, what was your vision when you came to Pacific Premier Bancorp and where are you
today?
Mr. Gardner: “When we took over Pacific
Premier in the 4th Quarter of 2000, it was a troubled bank that had significant
regulatory issues and was under capitalized. The vision was to turn the bank around and to
ultimately transform it into one of Southern California’s top performing commercial
banks serving small businesses within the Southern California market place.”
CEOCFO:
How have you accomplished the turnaround and where do you still need to go?
Mr. Gardner: “Predominantly through the
recruitment of great people; passionate and experienced business bankers from some of Southern
California’s best performing business banks. It’s our people that have allowed
us to accomplish the turnaround and to transform the bank. We had to substantially reduce
expenses across the organization as well as reduce the risk within the entire bank. We did
so by closing offices, shrinking the balance sheet from $550 million in assets to $200
million, reducing staffing from 330 employees down to 50. It was a painful process but
absolutely necessary to ensure our viability. Once that stage was completed we began to go
to work on rebuilding the bank. By bringing in new business bankers that had the
expertise and relationships the transformation became a reality”
CEOCFO:
You have expanded recently; will you tell us where you have gone and why you have chosen
these particular areas?
Mr. Gardner: “We have opened three new
full service depository branches in Orange County within the cities of Los Alamitos, Costa
Mesa and Newport Beach. Each of these areas has a high concentration of businesses,
which are also supported by a strong consumer base with households that have high average
incomes. Additionally, we relocated our Huntington Beach branch to a new office at a
highly visible location and opened a new SBA loan production office in Pasadena. All of
these locations were chosen due to their close proximity to vibrant and growing business
centers. With this expansion we expect to continue to grow the number of business
relationships over the coming years which will allow us to reduce our reliance on
wholesale funding sources.”
CEOCFO:
Who is your target business customer and how are you reaching them?
Mr. Gardner: “Our focus is on
businesses with revenues ranging between $2.0 million to $50 million annually. We have two
primary methods of targeting those customers; first through our bankers within the
branches who reach out to businesses within each of their communities. Those bankers are
focused on calling on small businesses as well as servicing existing customers. The second
method is through our SBA and commercial real estate lending activities. This business
provides us the opportunity to review a large number of transactions, which in turn
provides us the opportunity to cross sell our depository products.”
CEOCFO:
Are you concerned about the real estate bubble?
Mr. Gardner: “We are not exposed in any
direct way to residential home lending and thus the “real estate bubble”. We do
not have any residential construction loans on our books and we do not engage in sub-prime
lending. The outlook for our loan types; commercial real estate, business loans and
apartment loans remains relatively strong. Given our disciplined credit analysis and
centralized underwriting we are comfortable with where we are positioned in the
marketplace.”
CEOCFO:
Most people understand the appeal of a local bank as opposed to a national or larger bank;
why are people coming to you instead of other community banks?
Mr. Gardner: “It is all about our
people and their service level, knowledge and expertise of the businesses we serve. It is
their availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to each of our customers. Business
owners have a personal banker they can call directly at any time and who will take care of
whatever the need, issue or concern is. This commitment to our customers by every
employee in the bank and the sales culture that we have created is leading to more
businesses making the switch to Pacific Premier every day.“
CEOCFO:
Will you tell us about the community involvement of the bank?
Mr. Gardner: “We are extensively
involved in various community activities within our local markets. Our employees
participate in a number of community organizations and charitable events every year. The
bank itself directly invests and contributes to a variety of charitable organizations with
the local communities.”
CEOCFO: Are there services that you are not
now offering that you would like to add to the mix?
Mr. Gardner: “One of the keys that we
will be rolling out later this year will be a remote capture deposit product. An obvious
compliment to the currier service we already provide to business customers to make banking
with us as convenient as possible”
CEOCFO:
You mentioned consumers providing a deposit base; who are your consumer customers and why
are they using a “business” bank?
Mr. Gardner: “Part of our strategy as
we serve business owners is that once we earn their business, we specifically target the
business owner and their employees, thus they become our primary consumers. We have a very
attractive employee-banking program for those businesses. Lastly, through referrals from
existing customers about the service levels they receive at the bank.”
CEOCFO:
How has Pacific Premier fared under the interest rate situation that we have recently
experienced?
Mr. Gardner: “Like most banks, the
current inverted yield presents significant challenges to our business. We have been able
to work our way through by focusing on both the top line; higher yielding loan products
and the bottom line; through increasing low cost core deposits. Another way we have dealt
with the inverted yield curve is through an increase in non-interest income. We have been
successful in selling excess loan production, namely apartment loans, which has helped to
offset part of the margin compression we experienced through the third quarter of
2006.”
CEOCFO:
What will be different about the bank two or three years down the line?
Mr. Gardner: “We will continue to shift
the asset and liability mix to higher yielding loan products and to lower yielding
business deposits such that we expect our net interest margin to expand. We will continue
to grow and diversify the bank within southern California.”
CEOCFO:
Why should potential investors be interested and what might people miss when they first
look?
Mr. Gardner: “We are currently trading
at a significant discount to our peers from both a tangible book value and price to
earnings basis. Many investors may not be aware of the significant transition the bank has
under gone over the past several years.”
CEOCFO:
In closing, what is your day-to-day focus as CEO?
Mr. Gardner: “My job varies from
day-to-day. Primarily it involves providing the leadership and direction for our
management team. Interacting with our employees and listening to the challenges they face
each day. Meeting with customers to hear how we can better meet their needs and ensuring
that our employees share the passion I have for this company.”
disclaimers
Any reproduction or further distribution of this
article without the express written consent of CEOCFOinterviews.com is prohibited.
|
