PCBB CEO Steve Brown Retires After 25 Years of Service

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — February 8, 2023 PCBB announced today that its long-serving, accomplished CEO, Steve Brown, retired in January 2023. Curt Hecker, Chairman of the Boards of Pacific Coast Bankers’ Bancshares and Bank (PCBB) will take over as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Curt Hecker, along with Mike Dohren, who moved into the President position in early 2022 after being the CFO at PCBB for 20 years, will be leading PCBB into the future.

For the past 16 years, Steve skillfully led PCBB in delivering quality services to community financial institutions enabling them to successfully compete against larger institutions. He joined PCBB in 2002 as CEO of its broker-dealer subsidiary and became President & CEO of PCBB in 2007. He served in both roles until the beginning of 2022, when he transitioned out of his role as President to focus solely on CEO duties. Under his guidance and leadership, PCBB achieved tremendous success. Over the past 10 years alone, PCBB has more than doubled in asset size, growing from $641MM to $1.3B in 2022.

In his departing remarks, Steve expressed his gratitude to PCBB, stating, “I am very appreciative of the support and dedication of employees, customers, and shareholders. I am proud of PCBB’s accomplishments during my tenure and I look forward to the successes that PCBB and its leadership will achieve in the future.”

Since being appointed President of PCBB in 2022, Mike Dohren has been working with Steve and PCBB’s leadership team to focus on strong loan growth, mitigating interest and credit risk, and expanding PCBB’s customer base. All of these efforts are important components to enhance PCBB’s future performance and deliver quality solutions to customers.

Curt, Executive Chairman of the Board and now Interim CEO, brings significant experience to this new position. He has served on PCBB’s Board of Directors since 2009 and became Chairman of the Board in May 2022.

Upon assuming his new role, Curt spoke of Steve’s contributions to PCBB, stating, “On behalf of the Board of Directors and our shareholders, we would like to thank Steve for his decades of loyal service and leadership to PCBB, enabling the Bank to grow and serve our customers across the US. We wish him success in his new chapter of retirement.”

Curt was President and CEO of Intermountain Community Bank for 21 years and retired from Columbia Bank in 2015. He also held multiple leadership and commercial lending positions with West One Bank for 10 years. Further, Curt has extensive governance experience serving multiple SEC registered corporations and non-registered SEC-traded companies. PCBB is confident that Curt will continue to provide valuable insights and guide the bank into a promising future.