City National Bank announced its continued commitment to serving the food and beverage industry by hiring, over the last year, 16 new bankers with decades of expertise in the food and beverage industry nationwide.

City National, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, one of North America’s largest financial institutions, has a long history in financing specialized industry areas such as entertainment, restaurant franchises and healthcare. Launched a year ago, the food and beverage team has already been a lender to more than 20 companies in transactions totaling more than $500 million in commitments, and this new team will continue the strong success nationwide.

“We’re extremely proud of the successful banking services this team has provided to the food and beverage industry nationwide in the past year,” said Robert Iritani, executive vice president and head of City National’s Specialty Banking and Commercial Banking division. “This team of outstanding professionals has a strong reputation for serving this industry and establishing deep relationships over the past 20 years. We are extremely excited they have joined City National.”

The team specializes in “farm to fork,” serving food and beverage processors, packers, distributors and grocery retailers with expertise in sales, credit, sales management, operations and capital markets as they apply specifically to the food and beverage industry.

“In this industry, owners, financial sponsors, CEOs and CFOs all demand a financing source that can demonstrate deep domain expertise, stability across the team in all job functions and a strong reputation of executing and closing food and beverage transactions. Our team excels in meeting all three of these demands,” said David Hasenbalg, who leads City National’s Food & Beverage Group. “We had an outstanding first year, and with these additional hires, we plan on helping even more companies in this industry achieve their goals in 2018.”

The team includes:

• David Hasenbalg, managing director and group head, leads the Food & Beverage Group. He has more than 20 years of food and beverage banking experience, serving as managing director of GE Capital’s Food & Beverage group and holding various management roles with E. & J. Gallo Winery.
• Robert Brichacek, senior vice president and senior credit manager, leads the Food & Beverage Group’s credit team in structuring, underwriting, negotiating, closing and managing senior secured cash flow and asset-based credit facilities, equipment and real property term loans to middle-market food and beverage businesses throughout the country. He has more than 25 years of financial services experience, with over 20 years specializing in the food and beverage industry.
• Joel Keating, senior vice president and senior relationship manager, is responsible for developing debt financing opportunities across the food and beverage industry. He has more than 15 years of financial services experience and 10 years of experience serving the food and beverage industry with GE Capital.
• Justin D’Affronte, senior vice president and senior relationship manager, supports food and beverage industry executives with creative financing solutions and industry intelligence. He has more than 15 years of financial services experience, eight of which were spent serving the food and beverage industry with GE Capital.
• Mike Dallape, senior vice president and senior relationship manager, is responsible for providing debt financing as well as the bank’s full range of comprehensive financial solutions to the food and beverage industry. He has more than 20 years of food and beverage banking experience with GE Capital’s Food & Beverage group.  
• Shahe Kassardjian, senior vice president and senior relationship manager, provides cash flow, asset-based lending, real estate and equipment lending expertise to businesses in the food and beverage industry. He has more than 15 years of financial services experience, nearly 10 of which were spent serving the food and beverage industry with GE Capital.
• Rich Rudolph, senior vice president and senior relationship manager, supports food and beverage companies with comprehensive financial solutions. He has nearly 20 years of financial services experience, four of which were spent with GE Capital’s Food & Beverage group.  
• Jack Lampert, senior vice president and senior syndications manager, supports the syndication and distribution of senior credit facilities for the Food & Beverage Group. He has more than 25 years of financial services experience, 16 of which were spent serving the food and beverage industry with GE Capital.
• Todd Shrier, senior vice president and senior credit officer, is responsible for underwriting and managing asset-based, cash flow, asset-backed, lease and real estate exposure. He has nearly 14 years of financial services experience, more than seven of which were spent serving the food and beverage industry at GE Capital.  
• Tina Van der Zee, senior vice president and senior deposit relationship manager, assists with the depository and treasury management banking needs of firms in the food and beverage industry. She has nearly 30 years of financial services experience, 13 of which have been spent at City National Bank.
• Theresa Wong, vice president and senior credit officer, provides credit, loan underwriting and managing expertise on senior secured credit facilities to middle-market food and beverage businesses as part of the bank’s Food & Beverage Group. She has nearly 15 years of financial services experience, more than 10 of which were spent serving the food and beverage industry, most recently with GE Capital’s Food & Beverage group.
• Charles Kluh, vice president and senior credit officer, provides credit and loan underwriting expertise to the Food & Beverage Group’s credit team, with a specialization in serving processors, distributors and grocery retailers. He has more than seven years of financial services experience, most recently with MidCap Financial.
• Mak Kern, vice president and relationship manager, is responsible for the execution of deal flow, from origination to ongoing client support after closing. He has more than seven years of food and beverage experience, including three years of financial services experience, most recently with Nestle, Rabobank and Farm Credit Illinois.
• Jennifer Hernandez, assistant vice president and loan administrator, coordinates the documentation and funding of transactions and customer relations. She has 15 years of food and beverage banking experience with GE Capital and more than 30 years of financial services experience.
• Brian Mai, assistant vice president and senior credit analyst, provides credit and loan underwriting support to the group’s credit team. He has more than two years of financial services experience, most recently with Bank of America’s Middle Market Commercial Credit group.
• Stephen Li, credit analyst, assists with structuring and underwriting various financial solutions for middle-market food and beverage businesses throughout the country. He has more than two years of financial services experience, most recently with Union Bank.

Source: City National Bank