What glass ceiling? At this bank, women reach the top

SAN FRANCISCO —  The glass ceiling at many large public companies in California remains unbreakable, but the glass offices of one Los Angeles bank are dominated by women.

Nara Bank, a subsidiary of Nara Bancorp Inc. that caters to Korean Americans, ranks No. 1 in the state in terms of the number of women in positions of leadership, a new UC Davis study has found. Women hold five of its six top executive positions, and a woman sits on its seven-member board. Of the bank’s 408 employees, about 70% are women.

Min Jung Kim, 48, chief executive of the parent company and the bank, said it was difficult to break into the male-dominated Korean American banking world.

When she became a loan officer 20 years ago, most of the customers, who were mostly men, refused to talk to her about their financial situation, she said.

When she became a branch manager in 1993 at another Korean American bank, she was told that it was on a trial basis -- and that if she failed, it would hurt other women coming up the ranks.

And by some accounts, when it was time for her to become chief executive, she waited in the wings for a couple of years while the company went through two others. She finally became CEO last year.

“I always carried on my shoulders the pressure of being a pioneer in the Korean banking world,” she said.

But it’s not only in the Korean banking world that Kim is a trailblazer. The UC Davis study of California’s 400 biggest public companies, released Tuesday, found that only 13 had a female chief executive, and that in the last year, there had been little change in hiring of women for executive ranks and board positions.

Among these firms, female directors hold 9.4% of board seats, up from 8.8% last year. Of the 304 directors hired for public companies in the last year, 48, or 16%, were women.

There was no change in the percentage of women in executive suites, which stands at 11.6%. There are 199 companies with all-male executive teams, five more than in 2006, the study said.

“Companies are not prioritizing gender equity,” said Katrina Ellis, associate professor at the graduate school of management at UC Davis and the study’s lead author.

Companies often say they would like more women in leadership positions but claim the pool of talented and experienced women is simply not large enough.

In response, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit organization for professional women, launched a service a year ago to help companies find female board members.

In the last year, the service, named Board Match, has conducted 12 searches and has placed one woman on the board of a biosciences firm, said Wendy Beecham, the organization’s chief executive.

Korean American banking was once a male dominion, but that has changed in the last 20 years as more women such as Kim have risen through the ranks.

Kim started as a bank teller after graduating from USC. She credits a mentor, Benjamin Hong, a legend in the Korean American banking industry, for giving her key breaks. He had been chief executive of Hanmi Bank, a subsidiary of Hanmi Financial Corp., where Kim worked until she followed him to Nara Bank in 1994. He retired from Nara Bank in 2003 and is now chief executive and president of Saehan Bank.

Hong said he became comfortable with the idea of women in leadership positions during his 16 years working at First Interstate Bank.

When he began to hire women for leadership roles, he recalls, he met resistance from board members, some customers and even husbands of the female employees, who were concerned that their wives wouldn’t have time to be homemakers too. “I opened the door,” he said. “I encouraged them.”

Still, even though Kim had been Nara’s chief credit officer as well as chief operating officer, she was passed over twice for the top job.

She was appointed acting chief executive in 2005. Michael McMahon, a former analyst for Sandler O’Neill & Partners, publicly questioned why Nara kept passing over Kim.

“She brings extensive industry experience, including as the chief lending officer,” said McMahon, now a private investor. “She paid her dues. Now was her time. That is the usual progression for males.”

In her role permanently for a year, Kim said she had supported the bank’s policy to let employees work at home one day a week and work flexible hours -- as long as they got their work done. Such policies, Kim said, foster employee loyalty.

“Women officers tend to stay longer with their institutions as long as they are happy with their own environment,” said Kim, who has two children, ages 23 and 21.

Kim said her position as a female chief executive had helped her recruit other talented women. “They think that if this bank can allow a woman to be CEO, they think this bank has no bias.”

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michelle.quinn@latimes.com

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Nara Bancorp

Founded: 1989

Chief executive: Min J. Kim

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Branches and offices: 25

Employees: 408

Total loans (2006): $1.7 billion

Net income (2006): $33.8 million

Source: Times research