Laurel Sykes

Laurel Sykes is the Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer for American Riviera Bank. She holds the designation of Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager, with almost 30 years of experience in the banking industry. During her career, she has implemented enterprise-wide risk management, compliance, fraud, anti-money laundering, vendor management, and business continuity programs for banks ranging from $1 billion to $7 billion in assets. She currently oversees regulatory affairs and enterprise risk management for American Riviera Bank and leads the Bank’s consumer compliance function and the anti-money laundering/financial crimes unit. Also reporting to Laurel are the Bank’s Human Resources and Employee Learning departments, as well as the Marketing and Product Management functions. She graduated with a degree in Business Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sykes joined Santa Barbara Bank & Trust in 1995 and moved into the bank’s consumer compliance function in 1997 after completing an engagement on the bank’s merger and acquisition team. She worked for 14 years at Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and its parent company, Pacific Capital Bancorp, where she rose to the position of Director of Regulatory Affairs before accepting a position in 2009 with Montecito Bank & Trust as SVP, Chief Risk Officer. There, she was responsible for risk management, compliance, regulatory affairs, information privacy, fraud mitigation, financial literacy and elder abuse prevention programs.