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BANKING: Christina Cook: CFO of Marin’s largest local bank oversees stock buyback, creation of holding company

NOVATO – It’s no accident that Chris Cook’s two children both have birthdays in late May, within four days of each other.

As a bank CFO ever watchful of numbers and dates, Ms. Cook knew that during the first few months of the year she would be busy with annual and first-quarter reports. Things would slow down for a few months before picking up again with year-end responsibilities. With a little planning, she was able to take four months off with each newborn.

“I strategically planned their births,” Ms. Cook said.

As CFO of Novato-based Bank of Marin, Ms. Cook is always working toward balance, whether it is between professional and personal life or between the bank’s accounting needs and its business strategy.

And according to investment banker Jeff Wishner, she has proven adept at managing her responsibilities.

“It takes a lot of time to produce regulatory reports and financial statements and then having to think strategically, being able to see the forest through the trees, she does a good job of that,” said Mr. Wishner, managing director of Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc., which has worked with the bank on investment matters.

Recently, Ms. Cook’s abilities have been tested as she was called on to lead a number of major bank initiatives. Starting in late 2006, she oversaw the bank’s repurchase of more than 400,000 shares – totaling about $14 million.

“It was a way to manage our capital level,” she said.

The bank has started a second program, which Ms. Cook is still overseeing, to purchase up to $5 million more in shares.

In addition, last year Ms. Cook oversaw the creation of a new holding company, Bank of Marin Bancorp. The new structure positions the bank to more easily add new business units or acquire other institutions and gives it access to new types of financing.

Also last year, Ms. Cook provided a key financial analysis that led the bank to sell off its auto loan portfolio loans generated at car dealerships, which totaled about $76 million. Within a few months after the sale of the portfolio, all of the proceeds had been lent with higher interest rates to direct borrowers, who were considered more likely to become repeat bank customers. That helped raise the bank’s net interest margin – a measure of profitability – to 5.41 percent in the first quarter this year, up from 5 percent a year earlier.

Ms. Cook joined Bank of Marin in 2004 after serving as a vice president and director of financial reporting for California Federal Bank, where she stayed for two years after it was acquired by Citibank in 2002. Prior to that, she worked for Bank of America as a senior manager for financial reporting, budgeting and planning. She left in 1998 after it was purchased by NationsBank and the headquarters was moved from San Francisco to Charlotte, N.C.

A Chicago-area native, Ms. Cook first came to Marin County as a teenager to visit her two older brothers, who were living in Novato. She fell in love with California and the North Bay, rushing to finish high school and college in three and a half years each so she could head west.

“I just really wanted to come out here,” she said. “Everyone I met was so positive here, and it just really drew me.”

After graduating from DePaul University with a degree in accounting in 1986, Ms. Cook moved to Novato and took a job in San Francisco with Coopers and Lybrand, which is now part of the accounting giant Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

When the opportunity to work for Bank of America came up, she saw it as a chance to expand her knowledge base.

“What I liked about the position is that it leveraged the knowledge that I already had, but it was in an industry where I could learn,” she said. “Each time I make a step, I like to make sure it’s one where I’m going to learn something, and that will always create other opportunities.”

After 18 years in the banking industry, Ms. Cook appears to have found the perfect outlet for her skills and interests.

“I just enjoy the industry in general because we’re helping individuals and small businesses. It’s a people business,” she said.

And although relatively few top banking positions go to women – Ms. Cook was once assumed to be the wife of Bank of Marin President and CEO Russ Colombo at an investment conference – she sees strong opportunities for women in the industry.

“Just be persistent, and go for your dreams,” she said.

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