PacWest in Los Angeles accelerates CEO succession

PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles will have a new leadership team in the new year.

The $41.4 billion-asset company said late Monday that Matthew Wagner, among the longest-tenured bank CEOs in the country, will retire at the start of 2023.

President Paul Taylor will succeed him, as previously announced last summer, though the change will happen on Jan. 1 rather than at the close of next year as initially planned. Taylor has more than 35 years of experience in the banking industry, including as president and CEO of Opus Bank until it was acquired in 2020 by fellow Los Angeles-area lender Pacific Premier Bancorp. He joined PacWest's management team as president in July. He had already been a director of the company.

Wagner plans to transition to the role of executive chairman and serve in that position for one year. Current Chairman John Eggemeyer III will become lead director.

Additionally, the company said in a release announcing the changes that Kevin Thompson was appointed chief financial officer effective Nov. 28. He will succeed Bart Olson, who will assume the role of executive vice president of finance through Feb. 28 of next year to assist in the leadership transition.

Thompson had previously been CFO of the $12.3 billion-asset First Foundation in Dallas. First Foundation earlier Monday announced Thompson's departure. He had been CFO since 2020. Before that he was CFO and treasurer at Opus Bank from 2017 to 2020.

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Wagner has been PacWest's CEO for more than two decades, overseeing robust growth bolstered by more than a dozen bank acquisitions. The bank had less than $1 billion of assets when Wagner took the helm in 2000.  

PacWest did not provide a reason for the accelerated executive shift. But in the release, Wagner said, "I believe the time is right to transition leadership and am confident that Paul is the ideal person to lead PacWest into the future."