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One week and counting

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Sonoma Valley Sun


The Sonoma branch of Rabobank opened last week with some familiar faces greeting customers at the Maple Street location: from left, Anna Dawson, Branch Manager Cathleen Gorham, Juan Lobato, Senior Relationship Manager Sean Cutting and Julie Weber. Rabobank has 120 braches statewide, primarily in rural areas with a strong agricultural base. The location between Broadway and First St. W. is the firm’s first in Sonoma County. “Our community banking and agricultural heritage are a perfect fit for Sonoma,” said CEO Ronald Blok. Rabobank was one of the financial institutions that bid on the failed Sonoma Valley Bank.



7 thoughts on “One week and counting

  1. Welcome to Sonoma, Rabobank. If you desire to be our local community bank, then we are certain most Sonoman’s will challenge you to reinvest our deposits back into our community and pay attention to underserved areas like The Springs redevelopment zone. The Community Reinvestment Act is now in the forefront given the Banco de Sonoma developments.

    We are encouraged at your Agri-business focus and ability to service very significant credit needs given the fact your International Parent Company, headquartered in The Nederlands is backing you. We will look for your lending preformance to match your deposit gathering capabilities and we hope you will not act as a feeder and divert Sonoma deposits out of area to larger Agri-Business deals to the Central Valley and elsewhere. This would be inconsistent with our Cittislow model and against Sonoma Culture. Most large corporate names find it difficult to survive in Sonoma going against this culture.

    Many Valley residents remain with a bitter taste in their mouths, disappointed that our previously failed local community bank lent significant deposits outside of Sonoma Valley chasing high yields up on the 101 corridor according to SEC disclosures and Press coverage. The familiar faces in the photo above are a vivid reminder of those facts, a legacy your institution apparently and decidedly chose to bear.

  2. “One week and counting” is the title of this article ?
    from the Press Democrat article linked above

    “…Criminal probe coming?
    Cutting, the bank’s former president, is now senior relationship manager at Rabobank’s new Sonoma office. Cathy Gorham, former chief operating officer at Sonoma Valley Bank, is branch manager there.

    Brian Melland, who was the commercial loan officer in Sonoma that worked closely with Madjlessi, is now at Sonoma Bank in Santa Rosa as a workout specialist.

    Cutting, Gorham and Melland all declined comment. …”

    One week and counting …indeed !!

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