City National Bank, America’s Premier Private and Business Bank®, announced its expanded commitment to serving the financial needs of the food and beverage industry in New York and the Midwest by appointing Jennifer Pricco Braasch and Zachary Chubb as managing directors.

“We are thrilled to have bankers of such caliber join our incredibly successful food and beverage banking team,” said Robert Iritani, executive vice president and head of City National’s Specialty Banking and Commercial Banking divisions. “We started this team just three years ago, and it has grown to more than 20 bankers serving food and beverage companies throughout the nation. We have the custom solutions they want and the bankers who understand industry opportunities, challenges and trends.”

Based in Milwaukee, Braasch supports the food and beverage industry throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky with creative financing solutions and industry intelligence. She has nearly 20 years of experience and was formerly with Wells Fargo’s food and agribusiness group.

Chubb, based in New York, leads the bank’s East Coast food and beverage efforts. He provides comprehensive capital solutions and City National’s full suite of financial products to food and beverage businesses and their owners located throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C. He has more than 15 years of experience and was formerly with RBC Capital Markets’ food and beverage investment banking group.

“They are terrific additions to our team,” said David Hasenbalg, who leads City National’s Food & Beverage Group, and started it in 2016. “They understand our incredible dedication to client service and will help us meet the needs of more clients.”

City National, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, one of North America’s largest financial institutions, has a long history of financing specialized industry areas such as entertainment, restaurant franchises and healthcare. Hasenbalg’s team has worked with 40 companies nationwide on more than $1.2 billion in transactions.

City National’s team specializes in “farm to fork,” serving food and beverage processors, packers, distributors, corporate restaurants, agribusinesses and grocery retailers with expertise in sales, credit, sales management, operations and capital markets as they apply specifically to the food and beverage industry. Additionally, the team provides investment banking capabilities through RBC Capital Markets.