- Key insight: Investors had tabbed the $2.6 billion-asset company as a potential merger target, but the introduction of a new management team signals a desire to remain independent and focus on organic growth.
- Supporting data: BayCom completed its most recent merger deal in February 2022.
- Expert quote: “What changed is the Board’s assessment of the tactics and the team needed to get us there.” — BayCom Chairman Lloyd Kendall
BayCom Corp. in Walnut Creek, California, has a new strategy — and a new senior leadership team to implement it.
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The $2.6 billion-asset company, parent to the 22-year-old United Business Bank, disclosed Thursday that it has replaced CEO George Guarini, Chief Operating Officer Janet King and Chief Financial Officer Keary Colwell.
In their place, BayCom tapped a trio of former PacWest Bancorp executives. William Black will serve as executive vice chairman, Christopher Baron as CEO and Kevin Thompson as chief financial officer.
The C-suite transition, which Brean Capital’s Timothy Coffey termed “abrupt,” ends a period of extraordinary management stability. Guarini, King and Colwell had each occupied their positions since BayCom opened its doors in July 2004. They built the company into a franchise with 34 branches in five states, completing 10 acquisitions over the past two decades.
By shuffling its top ranks, BayCom has signaled an intent to focus more on organic growth, at least in the near term, Coffey wrote in a research note Friday.
“The leadership change includes a shift in strategy to focus on organic growth, improve earnings power and potential acquisitions to build out a Western Region banking franchise,” Coffey wrote.
Brendan Nosal, who covers BayCom for Hovde, reached a similar conclusion.
“Organic growth, which was never particularly robust at BayCom, is clearly an area of renewed emphasis,” Nosal wrote in a research note.
In a press release Thursday, BayCom said the new leadership team’s “experience at larger, more complex institutions is directly suited to the strategy ahead.”
PacWest reported assets of $36.7 billion prior to its November 2023 merger with Banc of California. Following that merger, Black and Baron joined Banc of California, while Thompson went to Heartland Financial, which was later sold to the $73.1 billion-asset UMB Financial in Kansas City, Missouri.
“The vision for this Company has not changed,” BayCom Chairman Lloyd Kendall said in the press release. “The focus has always been on building a premier Western Regional Bank with real scale and presence across the key growth markets of the Western U.S. What changed is the Board’s assessment of the tactics and the team needed to get us there.”
A BayCom spokesperson did not respond by deadline to a request for comment.
Investors appeared to react negatively to the news. BayCom shares were trading down more than 10% at $29.19 Friday afternoon.
According to Coffey and Nosal, shareholders may have been expecting the company to sell itself. The introduction of a fresh group of executives bent on driving organic growth makes that outcome less likely.
“The stock had traded on the premise the company was positioned to sell, while the new management team is focused on organic growth,” Coffey wrote.
“The street was expecting a different near-term strategic outcome for this franchise,” Nosal wrote.
BayCom has been profitable in recent years. It reported net income totaling $27 million in 2025, up from $26.3 million the prior year. But loan growth has been more subdued, with the size of the overall portfolio growing just over 2% since the end of 2022. BayCom reported loans totaling $2.05 billion on Dec. 31, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.
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The company’s board saw the situation as an “organic growth gap” that was contributing to a share price “that does not yet fully reflect the Company’s underlying value,” the press release stated.
Now, BayCom is counting on executives who guided a much larger institution to energize its operation. “A new strategic direction has the potential to re-energize the franchise, driving enhanced franchise value in the medium-to-long term,” Nosal wrote.
Black served as PacWest’s executive vice president for strategy and corporate development, while Baron was PacWest’s Los Angeles region president and Thompson was its CFO.
“Our focus is on building a growth engine, improving our trading multiple, and then executing on the larger, more transformational combinations that will complete the Western Region footprint,” Black said in the press release. “We’re ready to get to work.”
Guarini, King and Colwell — whose ages range from 63 to 72 — appear to be leaving on good terms.
“Together we created a strong financial institution with sound credit quality and an excellent deposit franchise,” Guarini said in the release. “I know I speak for Janet and Keary as well when I say, we are looking forward to seeing where this new management team will take the Bank we started in 2004.”