Chairman of City National Corp. stepping down, handing reins to son

The chairman of City National Corp. is stepping down and passing the torch to his son. Bram Goldsmith will become chairman emeritus on Tuesday, the bank holding company announced.

Russell Goldsmith, CEO of City National, will succeed him as chairman, the company announced Monday.

Bram Goldsmith, 90, will continue working full-time on the company’s executive committee and as part of the management team, and with City National’s clients. He has been on City National’s board since 1969 and has been chairman since 1975.

He was the company’s chief executive from 1975 through 1995. In that time, City National’s assets grew from $600 million to $3.3 billion.

“This seems to me to be the appropriate time to make the transition,” Bram Goldsmith said. “The company is in excellent hands, and I’m very pleased that Russell will succeed me as chairman of the corporation.”

Based in Los Angeles, City National Corp. is parent of City National Bank. The bank has $27.4 billion in assets and operates nine branches in Nevada.

The Goldsmith’s have deep ties to Southern Nevada. Russell Goldsmith’s wife, Karen, is the daughter of the late Jerome D. “Jerry” Mack. Mack, a Las Vegas real estate investor, co-founded what is now the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Mack was a close friend of Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chairman and CEO Steven Wynn. Goldsmith served on the Wynn Resorts board of directors, stepping down at the end of last year.

Bram Goldsmith has had a longtime business relationship and friendship with the Mack family, as well as Peter Thomas and his father, E. Parry Thomas, according to a company spokesman.

Bram Goldsmith said City National “has been, and will continue to be, a huge part of my life, and I know its best days are still to come.”

Russell Goldsmith, 62, is currently chairman and CEO of City National Bank and president of and CEO of City National Corp.

City National expanded to Nevada in 2007 with its purchase of Business Bank Corp. That was followed in May 2010 with the acquisition of Sun West Bank and in 2011 with Nevada Commerce Bank. Both were through deals with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

City National was founded in 1954 and was headquartered in Beverly Hills, Calif., before it moved to downtown Los Angeles in 2009.

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @sierotyfeatures on Twitter.