San Diego Private Bank Announces Chief Executive Officer Transition

CORONADO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 2, 2015) -  San Diego Private Bank (OTCQB: SDPB) today announced that Thomas V. Wornham will become President and Chief Executive Officer effective May 1, 2015. He will replace Maria P. Kunac, who will work with Mr. Wornham through the transition. Thereafter, Ms. Kunac will continue as a board member and consultant to the Bank.

Mr. Wornham, who joined the board of San Diego Private Bank earlier this year, has a distinguished background in banking, public infrastructure and community service leadership positions in San Diego.

"Tom Wornham has built banking organizations through organic growth and acquisition integration during his exemplary career at Wells Fargo, which spanned three decades," said Selwyn Isakow, Chairman of the Board of San Diego Private Bank. "Tom's reputation and ability to build quality teams and coalitions to achieve consistently outstanding results has been displayed in banking as well as numerous civic and political organizations. As we continue to broaden our client base by expanding services in San Diego and Orange County, Tom's skills, relationships and industry knowledge will lead us in our quest to become the prestige southern California community concierge bank."

A native San Diegan, Mr. Wornham has, besides managing his illustrious banking career and loyal customer base, been active in local government and spent decades commuting to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. conducting Government Relations for both the Private and Public Sector. Most recently he was Chairman of the San Diego County Water Authority. Tom Wornham has chaired many noteworthy community service organizations including San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Century Club of San Diego, San Diego Regional EDC, San Diego Championship Golf, cochaired United Way of San Diego 2001/2 Campaign and has been a member of UCSD Rady School of Business Advisory Board and a Trustee on The Bishop's School Board in La Jolla.

Ms. Kunac was the founding President and board member of Embarcadero Bank, organized in 2006 and the forerunner to San Diego Private Bank. She will continue to assist in building the bank through her involvement on the Board and through her widely acknowledged expertise in commercial real estate and construction lending. "Maria's commitment to her long time clients and the bank employees, some of whom she has worked with for decades, is a testament to her interpersonal and technical skills," Mr. Isakow noted. "We appreciate and thank Maria for all she has done for the bank since its opening. Her leadership has played a pivotal role in creating the third largest independent bank in San Diego. We look forward to working with her as the bank takes its next step in further creation of shareholder value."

San Diego Private Bank had $424 million in total assets at December 31, 2014, focuses on providing superior service and solutions through concierge banking to commercial real estate investors, entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals and professional firms. The bank has offices in Coronado, San Diego, La Jolla, Newport Beach and San Marcos. The Bank also offers various portfolio and government guaranteed loan programs, including SBA and cross-border Export-Import Bank programs. San Diego Private Bank is a SBA Preferred Lender and has a 5-Star Bauer Financial rating.

This press release may include forward-looking statements that involve inherent risks and uncertainties. San Diego Private Bank cautions readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include economic conditions and competition in the geographic and business areas in which San Diego Private Bank operates, our ability to successfully integrate the operations of merged banks, inflation, fluctuations in interest rates, legislation and governmental regulation. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and we undertake no obligation to update those statements whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events or otherwise.