M. Christian Mitchell

M. Christian Mitchell was appointed as a director of the Company and the Bank effective July 1, 2018, in connection with the Company’s acquisition of Grandpoint Capital, Inc. and its subsidiary Grandpoint Bank. Mr. Mitchell is a retired Deloitte senior partner, where he served as the national managing partner for the firm’s Mortgage Banking/Finance Companies practice and was a founding member of the board of directors of Deloitte Consulting USA, among other leadership roles.

Prior to the acquisition of Grandpoint, Mr. Mitchell served as Lead Independent Director and chaired the Audit and Risk Committees for Grandpoint Capital, Inc. He currently serves as Lead Independent Director of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation (NYSE: WMC), a public mortgage REIT, where he chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Compensation, Nominating and Corporate Governance and Risk Committees. He chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Nominating and Corporate Governance and Executive Committees at Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN), a public engineering, construction, technical and professional services firm. In addition, Mr. Mitchell serves as a director of several private companies, including Marshall & Stevens, Inc., a Los Angeles-based national financial valuation and advisory firm, where he serves as Vice Chairman; and Stearns Holdings, LLC, a national independent mortgage company.

Mr. Mitchell is Chairman Emeritus of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Pacific Southwest Chapter, and in 2017 was elected to the organization’s national board of directors. He is also a director of Huntington Hospital, a non-profit where he serves as Vice Chair of the Audit Committee and sits on the Finance and Strategic Committees. Mr. Mitchell taught as an adjunct Accounting Professor at the University of Redlands from 2006 through May 2010 and a guest lecturer from 2010 to 2017. In 2011 and 2012, Directorship magazine named Mr. Mitchell to the “100 Most Influential People in Corporate Governance” list. Mr. Mitchell earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Alabama, graduating summa cum laude.