City National Bank promoted Brent Williams to executive vice president. Williams, who serves as head of the bank’s national corporate banking division, will also join City National Bank’s executive committee.
“I’m delighted to welcome Brent to the executive committee,” Kelly Coffey, CEO of City National Bank, said. “Under his stewardship, the national corporate banking division is off to a strong start and benefitting from Brent’s deep experience. His leadership and insights will enhance the strength of our executive team.”
“When we chose Brent to lead national corporate banking, we knew we’d selected an experienced, talented banker,” Rich Raffetto, president of City National Bank, said. “But he has exceeded even our high expectations, and the division is already helping us fulfill our goal of becoming a strategic banking partner to larger companies nationwide. That’s a testament to Brent’s leadership.”
Williams, who joined City National Bank in 2018, helped launch the national corporate banking division, which specializes in meeting the banking and corporate finance needs of larger commercial and mid-corporate-sized companies and leverages the capabilities of both City National Bank and Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets.
“Since joining City National, I have been fortunate to work with outstanding teams throughout the organization,” Williams said. “High-performing colleagues are core to our DNA, and the national corporate banking and commercial banking teams are prime examples of that. I look forward to the challenge of this new role and helping our colleagues better serve our clients.”
Williams has more than 25 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining City National Bank, he worked in a variety of roles at Wells Fargo, most recently as commercial banking executive vice president and region head responsible for the Westside of Los Angeles, as well as co-head of the bank’s Southern California middle market technology, media and telecom team.
In addition to his national corporate banking responsibilities, Williams previously served as regional manager of City National Bank’s Los Angeles metro commercial banking business unit. He will relinquish those duties to three members of his team — Jasleen Patel, senior vice president and commercial banking manager; Jim Haskell, senior vice president and commercial banking manager; and Brandon Hovard, senior vice president and commercial banking manager — in order to devote his entire focus to national corporate banking. Patel, Haskell and Hovard will assume greater responsibility for the Los Angeles metro region. Patel and Haskell will report directly to Michael Walker, executive vice president and head of commercial banking, and Hovard will report directly to John Wheeling, regional manager for Southern California.
