North Bay Business Journal

April Hines has been named chief financial officer at First Community Bank. …

The Santa Rosa-based bank also hired Jonathan Graves as its vice president and commercial loan officer. …

Bob Bourdet, vice president and electrical division manager for Novato-based W. Bradley Electric, Inc., received the educators award from the Association of General Contractors. …

Josef Brinckmann, vice president of sustainability for Sebastopol-based Traditional Medicinals, was recently recognized by the American Herbal Products Association with an Herbal Insight Award. …

A new board of directors has been named for the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation. …

Bank of Marin donated $25,000 to SchoolsRule–Marin, part of its pledge to allocate 35 percent of its total corporate giving to education-related organizations in 2013. …

After joining the board of directors for the Oakland-based Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment, Kimberly Kaselionis has worked to restart a specialized loan program for women entrepreneurs in Marin County that she helped launch while chief executive of the former Circle Bank. …

Santa Rosa’s Exchange Bank celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Trust & Investment Management department this month. …

Santa Rosa native Jonathan Graves has joined First Community Bank as vice president and commercial loan officer. …

First Community Bank in January hired April Hines as chief financial officer and Jonathan Graves as vice president and commercial loan officer. …

Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors elected Rolf Nelson, senior vice president of Exchange Bank, as 2013 chairman-elect. …

Brent Ainsworth, editor of the Novato Patch community news website and a former Marin Independent Journal reporter and editor, will join the county of Marin as public information officer. …

To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation, a volunteer-based organization whose goal is to ensure that no one faces breast cancer alone, appointed Jeanne Capurro the new president of its board of directors, and Rebecca Spencer and Gerard Bourguignon, Ph.D., as new board members. …

W Property Management hired Donna Nordby as North Bay director of management and leasing. …

Luann Scally joined 5th Street Financial in July as the sales manager as well as a mortgage loan office. …

Joe Scaramella joined Santa Rosa-based 5th Street Financial and W Real Estate as business development officer. …

Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards hired Robert Hawk as regional manager for the Great Lakes territory. …

Featured in this spotlight on commercial lenders are executives at American River Bank, AltaPacific, Bank of America, Bank of Marin, Bank of Napa, Bank of the West, Comerica Bank, Exchange Bank, First Community Bank, First Northern Bank, Luther Burbank Savings, JP Morgan Chase, Mechanics Bank, Presidio Bank, Rabobank, Silicon Valley Bank, Sonoma Bank, State Assistance Fund for Enterprise Business and Industrial Development Corporation (SAFE-BIDCO), Summit State Bank, Travis Credit Union, U.S. Bank, Umpqua Bank, Union Bank, Warren Capital, Wells Fargo and Westamerica Bank.

The volume of small business lending backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration in the Bay Area reached an all-time high during the last fiscal year, and volume for such loans in three North Bay counties grew by more than one-third.

After leading Sonoma Bank, formerly Sonoma Valley Bank, for 26 years, long-time local banker Deborah Meekins assumed the role of president and CEO of Santa Rosa’s First Community Bank on Aug 1.

Ms. Meekins discussed her move with the North Bay Business Journal.

SANTA ROSA – First Community Bank has named Deborah Meekins as its new president and CEO, succeeding founding president and CEO, Kathy Pinkard. Ms. Meekins joins the bank from her former role as executive vice president and California market president for Spokane Washington-based Sterling Financial Corporation, which owns Santa Rosa-based Sonoma Bank.

While building homes for low-income families remains a part of Habitat for Humanity’s mission in Sonoma County, local volunteers say they’ve found a cost-effective alternative in the current economy – purchasing and renovating foreclosed houses.

NORTH BAY — Santa Rosa-based First Community Bank loaned the greatest amount of dollars to small businesses in the North Bay through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7(a) program in the 2011 fiscal year, jumping 10 places ahead to No. 1 and joining a wave of lending both locally and across the country.

SANTA ROSA — The high cost of complying with burgeoning regulation will be the cause of even more bank consolidation than has occurred as a result of the recession, experts say.

SANTA ROSA — The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, an international forum for standardization on bank rules, has approved increasing the risk-based ratio for financial institutions from the current 8 percent to about 10.5 percent over the next several years.

Following are many of the leading professionals in commercial lending across the North Bay. (Listed alphabetically by institution name)

NORTH BAY — The economy is still challenged, and businesses are still struggling. But there are some positive things happening, according to leading SBA lenders in the North Bay.

SEBASTOPOL – A long-time family-owned business in Sonoma County has jumped on opportunities offered by the soft real estate market and new SBA incentives to purchase its own building in Santa Rosa.

NORTH BAY — A principal at a San Francisco-based commercial mortgage brokerage with experience in alternative funding sources will be part of a finance panel discussion at the Business Journal’s upcoming Commercial Real Estate Networking Reception next month. The event will be May 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma. To register, call 707-521-5264 or visit www.NorthBayBusinessJournal.com.

(Listed alphabetically by name)

Also: Ex-Prudential executive joining Redwood Trust Inc.

NORTH BAY – The Small Business Administration is finally seeing an uptick in loan applications since the introduction of enhanced programs as part of the recovery act earlier this year.
Karen Mills, SBA administrator, in an address on Sept. 22, said, “SBA weekly loan volume is up about 60 percent compared to the two months before the recovery act. We’ve supported over $10 billion in lending so far. We’re back near 2008 levels in weekly loan volume.”

NORTH BAY – Even with aggressive new rules for Small Business Administration loans intended to increase lending, the program hasn’t delivered the punch it intended.

NORTH BAY – Small Business Administration loans are on the decline, both because businesses are not applying for as many at the same time as lenders tighten their standards.