New Union Bank Picks 3 Vice Chairmen

Three vice chairmen have been named at the new Union Bank, which was created officially by the merger of California First Bank of San Francisco and Union Bank of Los Angeles.

The new executives were named by Seishichi Itoh, president and chief executive of California First, who now holds the same position in the new bank. The new bank has $15 billion in assets and is the state’s fifth-largest bank.

Taisuke Shimizu, 52, a California First executive vice president, will be vice chairman in charge of the new CFB division, which encompasses most of the former Cal First. Donne P. Moen, 52, president of the former Union Bank, will head the UB division and hold the rank of vice chairman.

The third vice chairman is James R. Gibson, 62, executive vice president and head of consumer banking at Cal First, who will coordinate planning for a unified consumer operation.

A 23-member board was named Monday for the new bank. As reported earlier, the chairman is Tamotsu Yamaguchi, 58, an executive with Bank of Tokyo, the parent of the new Union Bank. The remaining 22 members include 14 other holdovers from Cal First, six from Union Bank and two new members from the minority community.

Herman E. Gallegos, a Latino and San Francisco management consultant, and John B. Slaughter, a black and president of Occidental College in Los Angeles, were named to the board as part of an agreement by Cal First to increase minority representation in the new bank. The bank also has agreed to expand minority recruiting and provide loans to low-income neighborhoods.