City National Bank, long known as “Hollywood’s banker” due to its close ties to the film and TV industries, on Wednesday said that CEO Russell Goldsmith is stepping down to be replaced by Kelly Coffey.
Coffey, considered one of the top female executives in the banking industry, is CEO of JPMorgan’s U.S. Private Bank, a giant private wealth management business. She has led that business since 2015 and is responsible for a team of 3,000 employees.
Coffey will join City National on Feb. 1 and will be just the fourth CEO to run the institution in its 65-year history.
Goldsmith, 68, steps down after 23 years at the helm, but he will remain chairman of the board. Under his watch, City National expanded from 16 offices to 72 offices and its assets grew from $3 billion to nearly $50 billion. In 2015, he negotiated the sale of City National to Royal Bank of Canada for $5 billion.
“City National is completing the strongest year in its history, and our path ahead has never been better or more exciting,” said Goldsmith. “Importantly, we have found an outstanding successor in Kelly Coffey.”
City National, which now employs 4,800 people, first got its reputation as a banker to the stars after it helped Frank Sinatra quickly raise $240,000 in ransom money for his kidnapped son in the 1960s — and helped authorities capture the kidnappers.
In the 1980s, it helped finance films like The Silence of the Lambs and Finding Miss Daisy, while more recently it has provided services to Broadway shows like The Book of Mormon and loaned money to Lionsgate, MGM and Imax.
