February 4, 2011 in Business

Rusnak named CFO at Sterling Financial Corp.

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Patrick Rusnak has been appointed chief financial officer of Sterling Financial Corp.

If regulators approve the appointment, he will succeed Dan Byrne, who has held the position since Sterling opened its doors in 1983. In the meantime, Rusnak will be acting CFO.

Rusnak is the former chief executive officer of AmericanWest Bank, which was taken private.

He joined AmericanWest in 2006 as chief operating officer. Previously, he had been chief operating officer of Western Sierra Bancorp, executive vice president for finance at Umpqua Holdings, and CFO of Humboldt Bancorp.

Sterling President Greg Seibly noted Rusnak’s experience, and in particular the innovative way he executed the financial restructuring of AmericanWest. A group of private investors purchased AmericanWest in December for $6.5 million, and provided $185 million in new capital to bring the bank back into compliance with regulatory guidelines.

“His expertise and resolve will benefit Sterling as our company moves forward,” Seibly said.

Sterling concluded its own restructuring in August, when investors added $730 million to the bank’s balance sheet.

Both Spokane institutions experienced steep losses from real estate and construction loans.

Seibly praised Byrne’s contributions to Sterling, where he will continue as corporate development executive overseeing the Spokane bank’s external growth and development.

“(Byrne’s) industry- and Sterling-specific knowledge enables him to hit the ground running as we implement Sterling’s growth strategy,” Seibly said.

Byrne remains Sterling’s executive vice president.

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  DickAdams on February 04 at 7:53 a.m.

  Sterling ads running on most TV channels showing a J. D. Powers award and bragging how satisfied everybody is, is digested food through the bull. $36,000.00 gets you one. Sterling has pandered for stimulus money before the Congressional ink was dry. Like most other bankers, somebody belongs in the Iron Bar Hotel.

• 

  UvulaCrusher on February 04 at 10:36 a.m.

  Really? In this economy can there be a legitimate shortage of qualified candidates past over in favor of the man at the helm when A.W.B. sank? What has he accomplished since then, worthy of this new stewardship? I am all for “second chances”, but NOT at the top! Promote from within! Give an emotional boost to some of the fine people you already have. M comes to mind. However, she is under-qualified having no proven track record of running a bank into the ground. She is also overqualified since she does what she states she will do. Additionally, if she doesn’t know the answer for something she will find out!

• 

  de3 on February 04 at 7:22 p.m.

  There are quite a few leadership positions around Spokane filled with people whose previous jobs did not end in success, to put it politely. I will not name names but many of them have been described in these pages over recent years and became leaders in health care, education, banking and other fields.

  Seems like Spokane has become either second-chance city, or its the best we can attract. Either way, not so good.

• 

  gocougs73 on February 04 at 7:32 p.m.

  Sorry uvulacrusher, but you need to know the facts before you comment. Rusnak was not at the helm when AWB sank - others before him are to blame for that disaster. When the FDIC showed his predecessor the door, Rusnak was put in charge and really did a miraculous job keeping the place open. Talk to any banker in town and they’ll say it was the FDIC’s confidence in Rusnak that allowed the bank to avoid being closed down. He did a great job at AWB and is actually very qualified for this post.

• 

  de3 on February 04 at 9:56 p.m.

  Rusnak was appointed as COO of AWBC in 2006. Was AmericanWest already going down before his tenure, but we just didn’t know about it?

  “Rusnak joined AmericanWest Bank in 2006 as chief operating officer. He served in that capacity until 2007 when he assumed the additional title of chief financial officer. In July 2008, he was appointed CEO. Rusnak successfully recapitalized the bank by transacting a deal with private investors. Prior to AmericanWest, Rusnak was chief operating officer at Western Sierra Bancorp and executive vice president/finance of Umpqua Holdings Corporation following its acquisition of Humboldt Bancorp in 2004, where he had served as chief financial officer since 2000.”

  He may not, perhaps/probably was not the one who crashed AWBC if that process started before 2006. And he did “rescue” the failing bank. But it is not accurate to imply that Rusnak had no involvement prior to AWBC’s management shake up. He was COO/CFO for 2 years before the then CEO was fired.