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coNEJO VALLEYCompliment

EeyExamner. om PublishedMonthly Readership st.50,000 August 200

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August2002 ConejoVafley xaminer

Pacific crest Gapital-a differentLino or oay oy Silha

Pacific Crest Capital is thelargest bank headquartered ineither the Conejo or SanFemando Valley. Bu! most peo-ple have not heard of it. GaryWehrle,

CEq acknowledges,"LJnless you're into incomeproperty investing, you would-

abgut $550 million" is a commercial

bank specializing in business lendingprimarily real estate lending and SBAloans. In1993, the bank spun off,fromThe Foothill Group and moved itsheadquarters to Agoura Hillg an areawhere many of the employeesresided. While the branches are in

Ir"it O Beverly Hills and San Diegothe company provides loans througn:out Califomia.

The company culture focuses onretaining quality employees and offer-ng exceptional customer service. To

these go hand in hand. Whilebanks talk about service, he feels

bank walks the talk. Twenty onehis key employees have been with

bank for an average of sixtenHe attributes this to financial

combined with heatingwith the golden rule in mind.

approach translates into a staffis experience4 independent, and

to service customers.

instance, the bank specializes inproperty loans under $4 mil-

a niche many other benks don'tThe bank has closedover 1,000

in the past T-B years. Wehrlethat when experienced offi-

from Pacific Crest visit a proper-they can evaluate it without the .

roadblocks that plague

larger banks. "If you specialize and

you're intelligent, you can movequickly, ask the right questions andsay yes or no very quickly." Moreover,Pacific Crest might approve a loanthat would be rejected elsewhere."hrcome property lending is typicallydriven by formulas, but if yorr'.uhands-on like we are, and someonewho really understands real estatelooks at the properly, you can makeloans that aren't quite as driven by

formulas." He calls it "street smarts."

The same philosophy holds true forSBA loans, where pacific Crest is apreferred lender, gving it the powerto approve loans faster without gov_ernmental red tape.

Also, Wehrle depicts this level of serv-ice in the bank branches. "It's morelike going into your lirirg room. Wedon't have teller lines and you would

be sifting and talking to me like this(at a table), there would be coffee...We're the old-fashioned hometown,personalized bank. We're the throwback to another era, that doesn't existan5rmore,"

Although a Conejo Valley branch isprojected for 2003, the bank is becom-ing more full service now by offeringlines of credit to professionals andsmall

businesses that do not fall under

gy. Although the bank staincludesexperiencedoan offibtnk will be hiring to accomdemand. The hope is thatbusinesses iscoverpacificCrwill seek urther banking serv

How successful s this serviced approadr? Secondquartings released n |uly, showeincreaseover oneyear ago. In

L8months, in a sinking stockPacificCrestwent from $14 o$28a share,up 98%. In the

J/ears,he company's efurn on

hasaveragedover tS%.

Gary Wehrle thinks the Conejoffers great growth opportsaying, "ft's a growth corridcombination of an affluent, grexpandingareacoupledwith aof banks that are focusedon s

But, when asked what he iproud of as CEO, Wehrle res"Building a companythat is unterms of the culture and its abfunction in a way that peopletheir work lives meaningful. Wgreatplace o work, we don't astress o people's ives and outomers that deal with us, li

lo* many businesses an reathat?" Perhaps that's his se

"knockingyour socksoff."$

in his office in Agoun Hilts.

the SBA umb

the Conejo V

bank is targe

tors, CPA's a

professionals

need credit olar or ryclicalprefer the flex

doing bubine

_ more person

,$ Pacific Crest i

accounts, incl

personalized

service andtomized online t

''$ erinS unique:iT,service thes