Tom Dobyns is the new CEO of San Luis Obispo-based Mission Community Bank.

He was most recently president and CEO of American Security Bank in Newport Beach, prior to which he was with First Interstate Bank of California, Great Western Bank and Home Savings of America. His career started with Bank of America Corp., where he worked his way up from teller to commercial lender and branch manager, 40 years ago.

“Tom’s leadership is exactly what Mission Community Bank needs as we continue on our path toward becoming a super community bank on California’s Central Coast,” Jim Lokey, chairman and CEO of the bank’s holding company, said in a Nov. 23 release. “His proven success in directing profitable banks and his motivational approach will be very well received.”

Dobyns’ appointment comes less than a week after Mission announced that the bank’s founding CEO, Anita Robinson, was being reassigned from her position to instead run the bank’s community development subsidiary, a position in which she’ll manage about 25 percent of the bank’s assets.

Dobyn’s joins the bank’s leadership and the company’s board of directors as Mission gears up for an aggressive growth plan. Carpenter Fund Manager, a private equity firm that has invested in several California banks, has poured at least $25 million into Mission Community Bancorp since 2009. Last year, it brought Jim Lokey, a former executive at Mid-State Bank & Trust, on as chairman and CEO of the holding company.

During his long tenure as an executive at Mid-State, Lokey helped to grow that bank’s footprint up and down the Central Coast before the bank was purchased in 2007 by Rabobank in the largest banking deal in tri-county history.

Mission’s first acquisition since announcing its growth plans was financially troubled Santa Lucia Bancorp, which it bought in October for $700,000. The deal doubled Mission’s size to $450 million in assets.
Dobyns’ most recent stint, at American Security Bank, had him running a privately owned bank of roughly the same size that last year earned $662,000.

“I am honored to join the Mission Community Bank team at this crucial time in our growth and development,” he said in a statement. “Having just completed the acquisition of Santa Lucia Bank, we are poised for profitable long-term growth.”

Mission’s share price was unchanged at $3.50 in mid-afternoon trading after the announcement.

The above story is an updated version of the article published Nov. 17, announcing Robinson’s reassignment:

Robinson leaves post as Mission Community Bank CEO

Anita Robinson has left her position as the CEO of Mission Community Bank and the president of its holding company and will now work full-time as president and CEO of the bank’s Mission Community Development Corp. subsidiary, the bank said Nov. 17.

Mission did not give a reason for Robinson’s departure from the helm of the bank and its board of directors, and did not say who would replace her in those positions.

“We look forward to Anita staying with us to focus on our community development efforts to reach underserved segments of our local markets,” Jim Lokey, chairman and CEO of Mission Community Bancorp, the bank’s holding company, said in a statement. “She founded our bank as one of the few California Community Development Financial Institutions recognized by the U.S. Treasury. She has a strong local presence and history in helping our communities.”

Robinson was president of the bank’s holding company for 11 years and was its CEO from 2000 until 2010.

Carpenter Fund Manager, a private equity firm that has invested in several Californian banks, has poured at least $25 million into Mission Community Bancorp since 2009 and has placed several people on the bank’s board.

In 2010, it brought Lokey, a former longtime executive at Mid-State Bank & Trust, the Central Coast bank purchased by Rabobank in 2007 in the largest banking merger tri-county history, out of retirement to head up the bank’s growth strategy in the region. He took over as chairman of the board and CEO of the holding company.

Mission acquired struggling Santa Lucia Bancorp, based in Atascadero, at the end of October. It has aggressive plans to buy other banks along the coast in an attempt to consolidate them into what Lokey once described to the Business Times as “a super-regional bank for the Central Coast.”