BANKING : Eldorado Executive Accepts Presidency of S.D. County Bank

Eldorado Bank’s supercharged management team, put in place during a restructuring last fall, suffered a blow when one of its top five executives left the Tustin bank to head his own shop in Vista.

Michael Dunahee left his post as executive vice president in charge of sales and marketing to become president of Rancho Vista National Bank in northern San Diego County.

Dunahee had been president of Bank of San Clemente and was instrumental in that troubled bank’s turnaround. Eldorado bought that bank last fall and made Dunahee one of four executive vice presidents under J.B. Crowell, the bank’s longtime president and chief executive.

The new team was expected to guide Eldorado as it tries to double its size to $700 million in assets by 1995.

There are no hard feelings, said Crowell and Dunahee. Rancho Vista simply made an offer Dunahee couldn’t refuse, Crowell said.

Besides, a large bank is something Dunahee said he has tried to avoid after working for 20 years at Security Pacific National Bank and Bank of A. Levy.

“I didn’t hate it, I just decided I liked this better,” Dunahee said.

Meanwhile, Eldorado will temporarily leave Dunahee’s job vacant, folding the marketing duties under the command of Harvey Ferguson, Eldorado’s chief administrative officer. Ferguson, one of the bank’s executive vice presidents, is a strong candidate to eventually succeed Crowell.

At Rancho Vista, Dunahee replaced former Orange County banker Herbert Slezinger, who was once a top executive at defunct Heritage Bank in Anaheim, which regulators closed in 1984.