City National : Hires a Team of Seasoned Private Bankers in Orange County

IRVINE, CA- City National, California's Premier Private and Business Bank®, today announced that it has hired a team of five seasoned private banking professionals from a number of local financial services companies for its expanding Private Client Services Division in Orange County. Chris Lee, Steve Stauff, Elisha Skip Torrance, Tom McNair, and Teresa Spera have all joined City National in a variety of positions to service high net worth individuals and families, and professionals throughout Orange County.

Chris Lee

Steve Stauff

Skip Torrance

Tom McNair

Teresa Spera

In their new roles with City National, Lee will serve as the Team Leader and Private Client Advisor, while Stauff and Torrance will also serve as Private Client Advisors, and McNair and Spera will serve as Private Client Managers. All of these newly hired colleagues will be part of a team led by Lee who will report to Carla Furuno, senior vice president and manager of City National's Orange County's Private Client Services Division. Lee and his team will be housed at City National's newly renovated and expanded Regional Center in Irvine located at 18111 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 450.

Lee and his team will be responsible for addressing all of the financial needs of wealthy clients, including banking and lending, managing their investments, and real estate and financial planning. They will also work very closely with other areas of the bank, such as City National's seven branches throughout Orange County, and the Commercial Banking and Real Estate Services Divisions in the region, to help grow the client base of Private Client Services and Wealth Management.

'We are very excited to have these five individuals join our growing team of seasoned private banking and wealth management professionals in Orange County,' Furuno said. 'They are highly qualified individuals who have the skill sets and contacts that will help us get to the next level of becoming the most recommended financial services provider in Orange County as well as North America.'

Prior to joining City National, Lee worked for One West Bank, which was just acquired by CIT, as a managing director of their private banking group. During his nearly 15-year career in the banking industry in southern California, Lee has also worked for Opus Bank, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Wachovia Wealth Management Private Advisory Group, and Wells Fargo Bank's Private Client Services Group. He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, and is very active in the community serving on the board of a number of nonprofit groups including President of the Board of Trustees Orange County/Inland Empire Chapter of Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Before Torrance joined City National, he worked for Morgan Stanley's Private Bank as vice president and private banker. During his 22 years in banking, Torrance has worked for a number of companies including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Brown and Brown Insurance, Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services, General Electric Capital Corporation, and World Trade Center Association of Orange County. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon where he earned a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies and Spanish.

Stauff, who joins City National with 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, worked previously for Wells Fargo Advisors in Irvine as an associate vice president in investments. He has also worked for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Los Angeles where he began his banking career as an investment analyst in 2001. Stauff is a graduate of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a Finance emphasis. He too is very active in the community serving as a finance and junior committee member of the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles.

McNair joins City National from OneAmerica Financial Partners, which acquired City National's 401(k) business in 2014. Prior to OneAmerica, McNair worked for City National as senior vice president and manager of the bank's 401(k) retirement program within the Wealth Management division. The majority of his nearly 20 year career in the financial services industry has been with City National. McNair attended Indiana State University where he studied Business Administration. He earned a Certified Retirement Services Professional designation and has been recognized as one of the highest leadership performers at City National earning the Blue Ladder Award as well as the President's Circle of Excellence Award.

Spera joins City National from Fidelity Federal Bank, which is now part of U.S. Bank, in 2000. She joined the bank as a commercial underwriter and analyst in the Commercial Banking Services group in Orange County. After spending several years in the Commercial Banking area, Spera moved to the bank's Private Client Services division to serve as a lead credit officer based in Century City. Serving now as a private client manager, Spera will work very closely with advisors to manage and expand client relationships. She earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Business from Chapman University where she graduated Suma Cum Laude and was awarded the top business student in her class. Spera is a resident of Laguna Beach where she is very actively involved in the community volunteering for a number of nonprofit groups.

About City National

With $36.4 billion in assets, City National Bank provides banking, investment and trust services through 75 offices, including 16 full-service regional centers, in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nevada, New York City, Nashville and Atlanta. In addition, the company and its investment affiliates manage or administer $53.9 billion in client investment assets.

City National is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies. RBC serves more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the United States and 38 other countries.

For more information about City National, visit the company's website atcnb.com.

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Media Contact
Paul C. Stowell, City National Bank, 213.673.7602
[e-mail]

(For an image of Lee, Stauff, Torrance, McNair and Spera, go to

https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Chris-Lee.jpg

https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Steve-Stauff.jpg

https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Skip-Torrance.jpg

https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Tom-McNair.jpg

https://www.cnb.com/PublishingImages/Teresa-Spera.jpg.)