First Choice Bancorp Announces Company and Bank Officer Appointments

CERRITOS, Calif., May 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Choice Bancorp (NASDAQ: FCBP) (“First Choice” or the “Company”), the holding company for First Choice Bank (the “Bank”), today announced the following officer appointments at the Company and Bank:

• Robert M. Franko, currently President and CEO of First Choice Bank and First Choice Bancorp, has also been appointed the Chief Financial Officer of First Choice Bancorp. Mr. Franko started his career in Southern California as the Chief Financial Officer of Imperial Bank and Imperial Bancorp, an NYSE listed company, prior to its sale to Comerica.
• Mag Wangsuwana, currently the Treasurer of the First Choice Bank, has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the First Choice Bank.

Diana Hanson, currently the Chief Accounting Officer of First Choice Bank and First Choice Bancorp, will remain as the “principal financial officer” since her appointment as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank, and will, in her capacity as the “principal financial officer” of the Company, continue to provide the certifications required by Rule 13A-14 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the Company’s annual and quarterly reports as will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“After thorough consideration of all of our options, the Board and Mr. Franko decided that the CFO responsibilities at the Company and the Bank were best filled through our internal candidates,” said Peter Hui, Chairman of the Board. “Given Mr. Franko’s experience as the CFO of a much larger financial institution than First Choice, he believed, and the Board concurred, that he and Diana Hanson could handle the financial reporting responsibilities of the holding company thereby allowing Mr. Wangsuwana to focus on the role of the CFO of the Bank.”

Following is biographical information on Mr. Franko, Ms. Hanson, and Mr. Wangsuwana:

Robert M. Franko
Mr. Franko has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of First Choice Bank since November 2013 and the Company since its inception in September 2017. Prior to joining First Choice Bank, Mr. Franko served as the President & CEO of PacTrust Bank and Beach Business Bank. As the founding CEO of Beach Business Bank, Mr. Franko assembled a world-class Board of Directors and an outstanding management team to create one of the most successful community banks organized in California. Prior to Beach Business Bank, Mr. Franko held executive management positions at various banks, including Generations Trust Bank, First National Bank of San Diego, City National Bank, Imperial Bank and Imperial Bancorp. Mr. Franko has been the CEO of banks totaling as much as $3.5 billion in assets and has managed organizations with more than 1,000 employees.