Chairman, HBSA/NC Advisory Council
Richard W. Decker, Jr. is Chairman and Co-Founder of Belvedere Capital Partners, LLC. Founded in 1994 and headquartered in San Francisco. Belvedere is a financial services investment group, specializing in providing capital and other advisory services primarily to community banks and other financial services companies such as insurance, wealth management, leasing and payment systems, throughout high-growth markets of America. Belvedere Capital formed the “California Community Financial Institutions Fund” in 1997 (Fund I) with $160 million in commitments from a group of “blue chip” pension funds and wealthy individuals from across America. The Fund I investment strategy was to invest in California community banks with assets of $1 billion or less, and to work as partners with the banks’ boards and managements to enhance operations and performance. The Fund purchased majority interests in 8 California banks, aggregating over $2.0 billion in total assets and consolidated them in June, 2004. These banks were combined into Placer Sierra Bancorp and went public in August, 2004, and subsequently sold to Wells Fargo Bank in early 2007. Belvedere recently closed Fund II of approximately $150 million and presently has 9 portfolio companies in their new fund, including banks in California, Texas and Florida, and several other financial services companies.
Mr. Decker serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; is the past Chairman of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Northern California; and a member of the Board of Directors of both the Harvard Business School Alumni Association and the Harvard Alumni Association in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr. Decker earned his BS degree from Long Beach State University in 1967 and an MBA in 1969. In 1970, he earned an additional graduate degree from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). In addition, he completed the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management at Stanford Business School and in 1986 completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School.
Mr. Decker is an active athlete participating in “endurance-oriented events” including marathons, Levi Strauss Ride and Tie, Western States 100-Mile Ride (Tevis Cup), the “Escape from Alcatraz” Triathlon, and the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. He and his wife, Suzanne, reside in Belvedere, California and have two children.
