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Bram Goldsmith is chairman and a director of City National Corporation and a director of its wholly owned subsidiary, City National Bank. He has played a key role in the corporation and the bank since 1964, when he was first elected to the bank’s board of directors.
From 1975 to 1995, Mr. Goldsmith served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of City National Bank and City National Corporation, leading the company’s evolution into California’s Premier Private and Business Bank®. He also spearheaded the bank’s expansion into San Diego and Ventura counties. Under Mr. Goldsmith’s leadership, the company’s assets rose from $600 million to $3.3 billion. City National Corporation now has assets of more than $14 billion, and operates 55 offices in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.
Prior to joining City National, Mr. Goldsmith served for 25 years as president and chief executive officer of Buckeye Realty and Management Corporation, at the time the largest privately owned commercial real estate development company in Southern California. He also was chairman of Buckeye Construction Company.
In 1942, after attending the University of Illinois, where he studied finance and business administration, Mr. Goldsmith joined the Army Air Corps and served for three and one-half years. He spent 18 months on duty in Burma.
Mr. Goldsmith has always been active in civic and philanthropic affairs. He served as president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles in 1969 and 1970, and chaired the 1965 Los Angeles United Jewish Fund Campaign. He also was a national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal from 1970 to 1974 and continues to serve as a life trustee. Mr. Goldsmith was a board member of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from 1979 to 1999 and is a lifetime trustee. He served as president of Hillcrest Country Club from 1972 to 1975 and has been a board member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association since 1977. He also was a board member of the Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1981 to 1987.
Mr. Goldsmith is a former board member and Los Angeles chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He also is a former chairman of the board of Region IV of the United Way and a member of its Central Board. He currently chairs the Wallis Annenberg Cultural Center Foundation, which is raising funds to renovate the old Beverly Hills Post Office and convert it to a 500-seat theatre while retaining its existing exterior.
Mr. Goldsmith is a former chairman of American Friends of the Weizmann Institute of Science and former deputy chairman of the institute’s International Board of Governors. He continues to serve on the organization’s board of directors. | 