Signature Bank expands West Coast operations with the appointment of Judi Prejean

NEW YORK: Signature Bank, a New York-based full-service commercial bank, announced its expansion efforts in the greater Los Angeles market, complementing its San Francisco operations.

Judi Prejean, who will oversee the Bank’s West Coast growth and ongoing operations, was appointed to the post of Executive Director, West Coast Banking Operations, along with 45 professionals, spanning 15 private client banking teams. Total teams comprising Signature Bank’s West Coast Banking Operations are now at 19, which consists of 61 banking professionals.

The new teams will be based in both Northern and Southern California, and as a result, Signature Bank will open four new private client banking offices in the Southern California areas of Warner Center (Woodland Hills), Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Ontario. Concurrently, the Bank will enhance its presence in San Francisco with the appointment of five additional teams to its flagship Mission Street office.

Prejean, based in Warner Center, brings more than four decades of banking experience to her new role. Most recently, she was Senior Vice President and Business Banking Group Manager at Bank of the West in Los Angeles, where she spent nearly 30 years in roles of increasing responsibility. In her last position, she led business banking throughout California, working with small to mid-size businesses statewide, and managing nine banking teams. Colleagues she worked with there for 10+ years also joined Signature Bank.

Emilie McMurray and James Canepa, each named Managing Group Director and Senior Vice President, are responsible for business development and for the oversight of six and four teams, respectively.

McMurray, with more than two decades of banking experience, joins from JPMorgan Chase in Irvine, California, and will be based in the Newport Beach office. Previously, as Senior Vice President and Market Manager for Business Banking in Orange County, California, McMurray and the 80+ person team she managed, oversaw the banking and finance needs of the institution’s commercial client base.

The teams under McMurray’s direction throughout both Northern and Southern California, include mainly professionals with whom she previously worked at JPMorgan Chase.

Canepa will oversee private client banking teams throughout Southern California, including those in Warner Center (Woodland Hills), Ontario and Beverly Hills. He spent the past decade of his 22-year banking career at Bank of the West in Sherman Oaks, California, where he was a Regional Manager, Senior Vice President, managing the Southern California region.

Additionally, Signature Bank also appointed three teams to its existing San Francisco private client banking office that already houses four.

“While our roots date back 20 years to our New York City inception as an entrepreneurial start-up commercial bank, Signature Bank has quickly grown from our initial beginnings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. First, we expanded into the greater metropolitan-New York area, and then, 16 years later, we established operations on the West Coast in 2017. With our proven single-point-of-contact banking model at our core, we realized the vast opportunity for bankers and clients alike on the West Coast. Our San Francisco clients are also significantly benefiting from the type of dedicated, exceptional service the Bank delivers to the commercial market, which has continually distinguished this institution since our formation,” said Joseph J. DePaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer at Signature Bank.

“In keeping with our founding philosophy, we add offices in geographic areas only once we identify veteran bankers in those markets. The West Coast presented many opportunities for attracting seasoned banking professionals, all of whom have long-standing careers and significant relationships, which is why this latest expansion is so sizeable and extensive. We welcome Judi and all the teams to the Signature Bank network and are ready to introduce our distinctive single-point-of-contact banking model to Southern California while simultaneously deepening our Northern California presence. We look forward to the contributions this remarkable group of professionals will bring to the Signature Bank franchise,” DePaolo concluded.

Prejean commented: “Signature Bank is just the right combination of traditional banking and modern technology. The institution and its principles initially reminded me of the way banking relationships were conducted in the past – when common sense, financial care and stellar service were considered key components of the decision-making equation, and the client was central to a bank’s operations and success here at Signature Bank, the client-banker relationship is clearly understood and highly valued in that same regard. In addition, commercial clients are afforded state-of-the-art technologies, giving them today’s necessary tools for advancing their businesses. Our clients perceive their bankers and teams as trusted and committed advisors, and know we stand ready to meet all their needs. I am privileged to have found Signature Bank after dedicating my entire career to the financial services space, and now see how its unparalleled model and single-point-of-contact focus influence the industry and the delivery of client care.”

Signature Bank expects to open its Warner Center, Ontario and Newport Beach private client banking offices during the summer of 2020, with Beverly Hills closely following in the fall.

Signature Bank, member FDIC, is a New York-based full-service commercial bank with 32 private client offices throughout the New York metropolitan area including Greenwich, Connecticut as well as in San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C. The Bank’s growing network of private client banking teams serves the needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior managers.