Frontier Bank Names New Chief Executive

--Frontier Bank said Wednesday that it has hired Richard C. Helstrom, former president of El Camino Bank in Anaheim, as its president and chief executive.

Helstrom replaces Charles Matter, the bank’s president since it opened eight years ago. Matter resigned “to pursue his own interests,” said William E. McAleer, the bank’s chairman.

Neither Matter nor Helstrom, who started this week but was out sick Wednesday, could be reached.

Helstrom had been president at El Camino for barely a year when it was sold to Wells Fargo Bank in a deal that included its sister bank, Citizens Bank of Costa Mesa.

A 30-year veteran of the banking industry, Helstrom was executive vice president of Community Bank, a mid-size regional bank based in Huntington Park, before he joined El Camino in the fall of 1989.