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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

THE BRIEFING – The Boss’ Management Strategy

THE BRIEFING – The Boss’ Management Strategy Six months after opening Mission Valley Bank in Sun Valley, CEO and President Tamara Gurney has already surpassed her goal for the first year $36 million in assets. But developing and establishing a new independent bank was no easy chore, said Gurney, particularly since she and her partners were committed to making businesses in the Northeast Valley, not the usual suspects in the investment community, shareholders in the new bank. So, the former CFO of the now-defunct American Pacific State Bank of Sun Valley turned to her former customers for help in funding her new bank. She shared with staff reporter Carlos Martinez what it took to make Mission Valley Bank a reality. “After American Pacific was acquired by City National Bank, I felt that this community needed a community bank. We all felt from the beginning that we were a team of entrepreneurs and shareholders. “So we wanted to get members of the community to invest instead of going through the usual VC channels. We said we didn’t want any majority shareholders or people who owned more than 5 percent of the bank. “It was an economic climate that was declining daily and here we were trying to get people to invest in us, so it was tough. We were so enthusiastic about our business plan and we felt we were unstoppable, then we started knocking on doors to get people involved and it was a different story. We gave a minimal amount of technical information and more on what the concept was of it being a community bank. “It would have been easier to get venture capital and that’s because, if they really like the company, they would want to get a controlling interest in the company. I was contacted by venture bankers who wanted to buy $1 million of interest in the company. But that wasn’t our goal. “We basically went about meeting our former (American Pacific) customers and local businesses and made presentations for them. It became very difficult and was sometimes discouraging to hear people tell us that they weren’t interested. But we managed to get people to see that we were committed to this bank. “It became easier after a while to tell them about our philosophy of banking and they could relate to their own experiences of going to B(ank) of A(merica) and Washington Mutual.”

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