Board of Directors

Steven Callaway

Chairman of the Board

Steve Callaway is CEO of the Pleasant Hill-based commercial insurance brokerage WestCallawayStotka, Inc. and serves as chairman of the board of Alta Alliance Bank. He has run a commercial insurance firm since 1986 and before that he worked for Arthur Anderson & Co. He is a certified public accountant and chartered property casualty underwriter. Callaway earned a B.B.A.. degree in Accounting from the University of San Diego, where he was a member of the business honors society Beta Gamma Sigma and the accounting honors society Beta Alpha Psi. He graduated winning the Franklin Award, in recognition as the outstanding senior in his class.

Arnold Grisham

President and CEO

Arnold Grisham is the organizing founder of Alta Alliance Bank. Grisham has an extensive banking background, spanning nearly 28 years. He spent 18 years at Wells Fargo & Company, rising to Executive Vice President and managing increasingly complex operations. His banking background also includes positions as president, chief operating officer and chief lending officer of Civic Bank of Commerce, where he was also a board member of the bank and the holding company, Civic Bancorp.

Grisham strongly believes in giving back to the community and in 2002, he and his daughter, Kristine, established the "Last Mile Foundation" through a family company. The primary focus of the Foundation is to help students who have already raised 80% to 90% of their college costs, but have exhausted all available sources of funding, to complete their financial needs. To date, the foundation has granted more than 100 scholarships averaging approximately $2,000 each. Grisham has also lectured to employee groups and professional organizations on leadership and mentoring subjects.

In January 2008, Grisham joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco as a member of the Board of Directors. His other activities include serving as an Advisory Board member of The United Negro College Fund of Northern California, as a member of the Executive Leadership Council in Washington, D.C. and as a Board member of Children's Hospital of Oakland.

Grisham is a graduate of DePaul University, where he also earned his M.B.A. in Finance.

Sedrick Tydus

Chief Operating Officer

Sedrick Tydus has decades of experience in management, marketing and business strategy in the financial services and online industries. Tydus, like Grisham, is also a veteran of Wells Fargo & Company. He left his senior management position after 12 years at Wells to join Bank of America briefly, and then to run the fastest growing division of E-loan - its home equity division. He co-founded Alta Alliance Bank, which opened its doors in October 2006. Tydus holds a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Michael Beasley

Mike Beasley is Chairman of Rocket Software, Inc., an independent software company providing a broad spectrum of integrated, value-added software development and support services to leading software original equipment manufacturers and directly to corporate customers worldwide. Founded in 1990, Rocket Software now employs over 300 people at its Newton, Massachusetts headquarters and branch offices nationwide. Beasley is a graduate of the Sloan Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received a Master's degree in the Management of Technology. He received his B.S. degree in Data Processing Technology from Weber State University.

Dr. Barry Breaux

Dr. Breaux practices Ophthalmology in Oakland and Pinole, California. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist and a Diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology. Dr. Breaux received his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and completed a three-year residency in Ophthalmology at the King-Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles. He also completed a fellowship in Refractive Surgery to become expertly qualified to correct a wide variety of vision problems affecting adults and children.

David Cannon

Dave Cannon is vice president and co-owner of Saylor & Hill Co., a commercial insurance brokerage firm which offers risk management, insurance and employee benefit services to businesses, nonprofit organizations, public entities, educational institutions and individuals. Prior to joining Saylor & Hill Co. in 1990, he worked for Metropolitan Life and the consulting firm Towers Perrin. He holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jack Chu

Jack Chu is managing partner and founder of Chu & Waters, LLC. A certified public accountant, Chu has 30 years of in-depth experience in the strategic, organizational and business dynamics of business enterprises and nonprofit organizations. Since 1987, his firm has provided audit, accounting, tax compliance, financial planning, corporate strategic and organization consulting and forward tax planning services to middle-market clientele and municipality enterprise funds. He is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master's degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University.

Robert Harris

Bob Harris is a retired vice president of Environmental, Health, Safety, Technical and Land Services at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1965 and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University Of California School of Law at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1972. He was admitted to the California State Bar in December 1972 and argued and won a case in the United States Supreme Court in 1985. Harris also completed the Harvard Graduate School of Business Advanced Management Program and the Management Development Program at Duke University's School of Business. For five years, Harris was selected by Ebony magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential Blacks in America" (1980, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995).

Michael Major

Mike Major is a mortgage banker at BWC Mortgage Services, which provides mortgage banking and brokerage services. He manages the firm's San Ramon office. Major's business experience has been focused on the origination of residential mortgages in Northern California, and he has had extensive experience with both large national mortgage firms and small private mortgage lenders. He studied business administration at California State University, Humboldt.

Regina Liang Muehlhauser

Regina Muehlhauser is the retired president of Bank of America, San Francisco, and former executive vice president of the bank's Global Treasury Management Group. In this capacity, she was responsible for the sales and delivery of treasury management services to large corporations in 35 countries and approximately two million commercial and small business companies in the United States. A native of Hong Kong, Muehlhauser moved to the U.S. at the age of seven. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from American University in Washington, D.C. In June 2003 Treasury & Risk Management magazine named her among the "100 Most Influential People in Finance" in the United States and in 2002 she received the Woman of Honor award by the Chinese Historical Society of America for her impact on society as a business leader. For three consecutive years (2001-2004) she was named one of the top 100 women in business by the San Francisco Business Times.

Robert Sarver

Robert Sarver has been chairman and chief executive officer of Western Alliance Bancorporation since December 2002. He has also served as the chairman of Torrey Pines Bank since May 2003 and is chief executive officer of Bank of Nevada. He currently serves as director of SkyWest Airlines and of Meritage Corporation, one of the largest homebuilders in the country. He is also the managing partner of the Phoenix Suns NBA basketball team.

A 1982 graduate of the University of Arizona, Sarver earned his bachelor's degree in business administration, and became a certified public accountant in 1983. After founding the National Bank of Arizona in 1984, Sarver served as president until its sale to the Zion's Bancorporation in 1994. Prior to the sale, National Bank of Arizona had become the largest independent bank in the state. In 1995, Sarver led a group of investors in acquiring Grossmont Bank, San Diego's largest community bank. He was the Chairman and CEO of the holding company before its sale to the Zion's Bancorporation in 1998.

Richard Weinstein

Richard Weinstein owns Weinstein Investments, and is a licensed California real estate broker and real estate investor. He owns and manages 25 commercial buildings in the Bay Area. He earned a B.A. degree in Political Science from Whittier College and a Master's degree in International Management from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management.