Bank of the West‘s Commercial Banking Group (CBG) has appointed Sean Conlon managing director and head of the new healthcare initiative based in Los Angeles.

With more than 20 years of experience in investment and commercial banking in the healthcare sector, Conlon is leading a healthcare team that serves clients in two primary areas: not-for-profit hospitals, including the top 500 hospitals in the U.S., and for-profit healthcare, including for-profit hospitals, as well as healthcare services, med-tech, and pharmaceutical companies.

“The healthcare sector in the U.S. is undergoing significant transformation, marked by growth, complexity, and the increasing need for financing solutions,” said Jean-Marc Torre, head of Bank of the West’s Commercial Banking Group. “Establishing a dedicated healthcare team will sharpen our existing focus on serving growing healthcare companies across the country and augment our robust offering in this sector.”

Conlon is overseeing a team of relationship managers focused on healthcare, based in nine markets across the U.S. The team also includes Michael Tschida who recently joined the bank as a dedicated healthcare banker. Tschida worked with Conlon for the last eight years at Union Bank in its healthcare group.

“Sean’s deep knowledge of the healthcare industry informed by nearly two decades of experience will significantly enhance our already strong healthcare initiative,” said Mark Glasky, executive vice president and head of Bank of the West’s Commercial Banking Coverage. Conlon will report to Glasky.

Over the course of his career, Conlon has developed extensive expertise working in mergers and acquisition capital formation with international financial institutions, spent four years managing a $2 billion REIT portfolio of healthcare real estate assets, and developed relationships with more than 100 healthcare clients.

Prior to joining Bank of the West, Conlon was a managing director and head of Healthcare Finance at MUFG Union Bank, where he developed the strategy, implementation, and budgets for healthcare finance that included for-profit and not-for-profit banking clients. Before that, Conlon worked in asset management at HCP (formerly Health Care Property Investors). At HCP, he focused on valuation, operational and property diligence, and underwriting of hospital and skilled nursing facilities. Conlon also spent more than a decade at BNP Paribas (BNPP), where he built and led BNP Paribas’s Healthcare Finance specialization in the Western U.S.