About

San Diego Private Bank Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board 

 Selwyn Isakow, Mr. Isakow is Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Oxford Investment Group, Inc. a private equity investment and corporate development firm which has built over 50 manufacturing and niche distribution companies on a global basis.

Mr. Isakow was the Founder and Chairman of Bloomfield Hills Bancorporation, a Michigan-based holding company for The Private Bank which operated three private banking operations: The Bank of Bloomfield Hills, The Bank of Rochester and The Bank of Grosse Pointe as well as The Private Bank Wealth Management Group and The Private Bank Mortgage Company. Previously, Mr. Isakow served as Executive Vice President of Comerica, Inc. a large regional bank in Detroit, Michigan and before that Mr. Isakow served as a Principal of Booz Allen & Hamilton, management consultants, where he was a member of the Worldwide Strategic Management Group and headed the Financial Service Industry practice for Western U.S. Mr. Isakow also was an Audit Manager for Fisher, Hoffman & Levenberg, Chartered Accountants in South Africa.

Mr. Isakow has served on the Board of Directors of several NYSE companies as well as numerous private companies and non-profit organizations. He has received various civic and business honors and awards including E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year. He obtained his MBA from Wharton Business School and his Bachelor of Commerce, Certificate in Accounting and Bachelor of Accounting degrees from University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

 David Ellman, Mr. Ellman is the Chairman of the "Gerber Goldschmidt Group" (GGG), a 90 year old international private equity investment and trading group. While the Company is headquartered in San Diego, GGG subsidiaries are located around the world and primarily trade in food based products and textiles, and have a diversified portfolio of private equity investements. 

Mr. Ellman is involved in the San Diego World Trade Council and a number of charitable and humanitarian causes. He has served on the Board of Hebrew Homes since 1993,  and presently serves on it's Foundation Board. He has served on the Board of the JCC since 1988 and for the last 15 years on it's Advisory Board. He is a past member of United Jewish Federation Board & Public Relations Committee.

Mr. Ellman received his B.Com (Bachelor, Commerce) and LLB (Bachelor, Law) from the University of the Orange Free State, South Africa.

David S. Engelman, Mr. Engelman is a private investor and corporate director. Mr. Engelman has served as a board memberof MGIC Investment Corp., Fleetwood Enterprises, Fiedstone Mortgage Investment Corp., Union Fed Bancorp, Quaker City Bancorp, Commercial Federal Corp, and National Bank of La Jolla. He has been a CEO or COO of Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Union Federal Bank, Fleetwood Enterprises and Financial American Network. Mr. Engelman has resided in the San Diego area for 38 years.  

Leon Kassel, Mr. Kassel is the President of Jeval Asset Management based in San Diego. He has more than 20 years of banking and bank directorship experience. He was a director of Bank of Southern California in San Diego from 1988 to 1994 he also served as the bank's Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 1996. Following the merger of Bank of Southern California with First National Bank, San Diego, he served as the Director of First National Bank from 1996 until the sale of the bank in 2002. He served as the Chairman of the Board of the bank from 2000 to 2002 and as the bank's Chief Investment Officer from 1998 to 2000. Following the acquisition of First National Bank by First Community Bancorp, Mr. Kassel served as a director of First Community Bancorp.

Mr. Kassel has served as a member of the board of the Burnham Cancer Research. He was a member of the investment committee of the Jewish Community Foundation in San Diego and the treasurer and board member for Congregation Beth El in San Diego.

Mr. Kassel obtained his B.S. in Management/Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Maria P. Kunac, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank. Ms. Kunac has spent 30+ years with Southern California headquartered financial institutions in roles including, Chief Lending Officer, Chief Internal Asset Review Officer, Chief Credit Officer, Special Assets Division Manager, and Commerical Real Estate and Construction Lending Manager/Training Coordinator. Ms. Kunac serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Twelved District's Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council. She also serves on the Board of Local Anitiatives Support Corp, a non-profit community development agency to transform distressed neighborhoods. 

David Moore, Mr. Moore is a Managing Director of Resource Financial Institutions Group and Managing Principal of Marathon Capital Holdings. He has over fifteen years of experience evaluating and advising community banks and thrifts in various capacities, including buy-side analyst, sell-side analyst, private equity sponsor, investment banker and director.  

Ernest Rady, Mr. Rady, an experienced banker, entrepreneur and philanthropist is founder and Chairman of privately held American Assets Inc., a conglomerate that controls businesses in numerous sectors of the economy, including financial services, investment management and real estate. American Assets Real Estate Group is one of the largest real estate groups in the San Diego area and controls $2.5 billion in real estate assets in the Western United States.

He was formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Westcorp, a NYSE-traded financial services company that was sold to Wachovia Corp. in 2006. His storied career spans a wide variety of industries, including beverage wholesaling, radio stations/telecommunications towers, oil and gas, as well as professional soccer and major league baseball.

Mr. Rady has served as past Chairman, Board of Trustees, Director and Treasurer of the Rady Children's Hospital and Health Center. He has also served as the Chairman of the Dean's Advisory Council of the Rady Business School at UCSD, acting member of UCSD's Chancellor's Associates, Trustee of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and as a Trustee of Scripps Health.  

 Steve Rippe, is the Chief Credit Officer and a Director. Mr. Rippe organized Embarcadero Bank (Coronado First Bank) in 2005 and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2011. Mr. Rippe is graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara.   

 Jerry Suppa, Mr. Suppa is a former trial lawyer and has represented financial lending institutions for an excess of 35 years. He currently serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the San Diego Superior Court and is a resident of Rancho Santa Fe. Mr. Suppa earned a BBA in Accounting (Loyola University), a J.D. Degree (USD), and was admitted to the California Bar in 1975.