Ex-banker Kilkenny, Warren Capital announce alliance

NOVATO – Patrick Kilkenny, 40-year veteran of the financial services business, has been retained as an independent adviser for Warren Capital Corp. as it prepares for a period of growth.

Warren Capital is a specialty finance company serving the business community of the North Bay and greater Bay Area for 26 years.

Mr. Kilkenny and Clay Stephens, CEO of Warren Capital, have known one another for more than 20 years.

Mr. Kilkenny was chairman, president and chief executive officer of the former National Bank of the Redwoods and comes to Warren Capital to help it expand services to existing clients and hopefully to new ones as well.

“We are trying to help these companies find additional sources of capital and better ways to finance,” Mr. Stephens said.

Mr. Kilkenny “is one of the most respected bankers in Northern California and will be an invaluable asset to our company,” Mr. Stephens said.

When National Bank of the Redwoods was sold to Westamerica in 2004, Mr. Kilkenny was under a non-compete contract for three years.

“I didn’t have any desire to get heavily involved in business,” he said. “But I was able to consult law firms” on financial matters via his firm Kilkenny Advisors.

Roughly one-third of Warren Capital’s business is in the North Bay, mostly in food and beverage, health care and wine bottling and shipping, according to Mr. Stephens. Over its years in business, Warren Capital has secured financing of $1.5 billion for companies, $450 million of that in the North Bay.

Mr. Stephens said Mr. Kilkenny “will be a strategic adviser for us. He will bring financing opportunities we can work on, and we will be able to provide him with clients. It will be a win-win situation.”

Mr. Kilkenny will remain an independent adviser through Kilkenny Advisors.

Mr. Kilkenny earned a degree in finance at Santa Clara University, a law degree from Empire College and graduated from the Pacific Coast Banking School.

In addition to his work with financial institutions in the area, he has been involved with many of the business groups and is currently the president of Sonoma County Alliance. He is a past president of the Community Foundation Sonoma County, past chairman of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce and currently sits on the board of Goodwill Industries of the Redwood Empire.