Richard H. Taketa Joins Board of Directors of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (OTCQB: FMBL) today announced that Richard H. Taketa has been elected to its board of directors.

Taketa, 52, currently serves as President of Taketa Capital Corporation, a private investment and consulting company based in Newport Beach, Calif., that focuses on supporting high growth, entrepreneurial companies and their leaders through active investing and collaborative consulting and advising. His election fills a vacancy on the Bank’s seven-person board.

Taketa previously was Chief Executive Officer and President of York Risk Services Group, Inc., a provider of insurance, risk management, alternative risk, pool administration and claims management, based in Parsippany, New Jersey. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of Southern California Risk Management Associates, and he began his career as a corporate securities lawyer with the global law firm DLA Piper.

“Rick Taketa is a respected community leader and a highly experienced corporate advisor, with extensive expertise in finance and operations, risk management and operating in regulated markets,” said Daniel K. Walker, executive chairman of F&M’s board. “We welcome him to the F&M family and look forward to the guidance and influence he will bring to our organization in the years ahead.”

In addition to his F&M board seat, Taketa serves as lead independent director of Palomar Holdings, Inc., a La Jolla, Calif.-based publicly traded provider of specialty insurance products, and he is a director of Denver-based Veritone, Inc., also publicly traded, which develops artificial intelligence solutions. Active in the Orange County community, he also serves on the board of directors of the Hoag Hospital Foundation.

Taketa earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School. He is a past guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and was a national finalist for the 2017 Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Financial Services division.

About Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach

Founded in Long Beach in 1907 by C.J. Walker, Farmers & Merchants Bank provides white-glove service to clients at 27 branches from San Clemente to Santa Barbara, as well as through its Online and Mobile Banking platforms. The Bank offers commercial and small business banking, business loan programs, home loans, and a robust offering of consumer retail banking products, including checking, savings and youth accounts. Farmers & Merchants Bank is a California state-chartered bank with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (Member FDIC) and an Equal Housing Lender. For more information about F&M, please visit the website, www.fmb.com.