Citizens announced that veteran banking executive Mark Lehmann, chief executive of JMP Group, has been named as its California President to accelerate growth in a key market where the bank has recently added some of the state’s top private bankers.

In addition to his current role as CEO of JMP, Lehmann, a 32-year banking industry veteran, will lead Citizens’ California strategy, leveraging the bank’s capabilities to serve individual and corporate clients throughout the state. In this new role, he will also represent Citizens in the community.

Lehmann joined Citizens in 2021 when the bank acquired San Francisco-based investment banking firm JMP Group. That deal followed the 2020 acquisition of franchise M&A advisory firm Trinity Capital, which is based in Los Angeles, and built on the bank’s foundation of California-based coverage bankers and national product offerings to serve clients in the state.

Citizens now has more than 200 bankers and advisers in California delivering solutions and insights to individual and corporate clients across a wide range of industry sectors.

“Mark is a strong leader with a successful track record of building relationships with corporate and institutional clients and colleagues, and he is perfectly suited for this new role as we rapidly grow across California,” said Don McCree, vice chairman and head of commercial banking. “Mark and our California team have a deep understanding of the increasingly complex challenges our clients face and a strong track record of helping them succeed. Our clients partner with the Citizens team because we deliver the best of the whole bank to help them achieve their goals.”

Prior to joining JMP in 2003, Lehmann served in a variety of roles including Global Director of Institutional Sales followed by Global Director of Equity Research at Banc of America Securities after working as an institutional salesperson at the firm and its predecessor, Montgomery Securities.