Christopher Myers, president and CEO of CVB Financial and its subsidiary Citizens Business Bank, decided to retire effective March 15, 2020. The company’s board of directors has begun the leadership transition process for the organization.

Myers, who has served as CEO since 2006, will remain available to the company as a consultant through December 31, 2020 in order to facilitate a smooth and orderly transition.

“I believe it is the right time for me to step aside and help the bank transition to new leadership,” said Myers. “I want to thank George Borba, Sr. for providing me the opportunity to lead Citizens Business Bank at the relatively young age of 44, thirteen years ago. He took a chance on me, and I am forever grateful. Over the last decade plus, our team has accomplished every major objective that I envisioned, including reengineering and bolstering our deposit and funding base, achieving significant geographic expansion, and consistently producing outstanding financial performance. I am particularly proud of our transformational merger with Community Bank, which closed this past August. We have truly taken our combined company to a new financial level. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without an outstanding group of executives and associates who joined me in our quest to be the best. They believed in me, and I in them. I look forward to continuing to lead the bank as the Board conducts its search process and will do my best to help facilitate a smooth transition for my successor, the Bank, the Board and all of our stakeholders.”

During Myers’ tenure as president and CEO, Citizens Business Bank’s non-interest-bearing deposits have more than tripled while total deposits and loans are up over 250% and shareholder’s equity has increased from approximately $375 million in 2006 to over $1.9 billion today. Quarterly earnings per share have grown from $0.21 to $0.37 per quarter and return on average assets has grown from 1.22% to 1.84%. The company’s stock market capitalization, which declined to less than $600 million during the 2009 recession, has now grown to almost $3 billion.

“Chris Myers has a record of unparalleled performance for our organization as our President and CEO, and we are grateful to him for his long and exceptional service as the leader of our management team and as a fellow director,” said Raymond V. O’Brien III, CVB chairman. “He has brought about tremendous growth and strengthened our franchise while maintaining an enviable track record of 168 consecutive quarters of profitability and 118 consecutive quarters of paying a dividend to our shareholders, which we believe is unique for a banking organization of our size and scale.”

The board has initiated a robust process to identify and select a qualified and suitable successor. As part of that process, the board has formed a special committee to oversee the transition process and will engage an outside executive search firm to assist in identifying and evaluating qualified internal and external candidates for the Company’s leadership succession.

CVB Financial is one of the 10 largest bank holding companies headquartered in California with over $11 billion in total assets. Citizens Business Bank is consistently recognized as one of the top performing banks in the nation and offers a wide array of banking, lending and investing services through 58 banking centers and 3 trust office locations serving the Inland Empire, Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County, Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and the Central Valley area of California.