Boards: Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, First Foundation Bank , First Foundation Inc.

Simone Lagomarsino is a strategic thinker and transformational leader of highly regulated, publicly traded companies. She is currently the president of First Foundation Bank, a $13.3 billion asset financial institution that is a subsidiary of First Foundation Inc. For more than 15 years, she has served as CEO and on the boards of three publicly traded commercial banks: Hawthorne Savings (Nasdaq: HTHR), Heritage Oaks Bank (Nasdaq: HEOP), and Luther Burbank Savings (Nasdaq: LBC). As a result of her leadership, these financial institutions were transformed and sold successfully, generating total returns to the shareholders that outpaced their peers during her tenure. Ms. Lagomarsino has strong expertise in mergers and acquisitions; she has been involved in negotiating and closing more than 10 mergers, on either the buy side or the sell side.

Ms. Lagomarsino is a sought-after board member and has served as an independent director for Pacific Premier Bank (Nasdaq: PPBI) and Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure (NYSE: HASI), bringing her public company board experience to nearly 20 years. 

Since 2013, she has served on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF), a Securities and Exchange Commission–reporting organization with total assets of $92.8 billion as of December 31, 2023. Ms. Lagomarsino is a qualified financial expert who has served at FHLBSF as chair of the audit committee, chair of the risk committee, and chair of the regulatory compliance oversight committee as well as chair of the board, in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, Ms. Lagomarsino joined the head office board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she served until July 2024.

Ms. Lagomarsino has also served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Foundation for the Performing Arts, Alzheimer’s Association, the board of trustees of Azusa Pacific University, and Operation Hope, to name a few.

Ms. Lagomarsino has been a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors since 2013. She has completed numerous educational programs related to board governance, diversity, and emerging risks. She earned a master of business administration degree in finance from Claremont Graduate University and a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Claremont McKenna College.