City National Bank Expands Successful Food & Beverage Group

New additions in Atlanta and Denver to support nationwide growth

Atlanta and Denver — City National Bank announced today that it has expanded its commitment to serving the financial needs of the food and beverage industry nationwide by hiring Eric Viergutz and Liz Bogdon as relationship managers in Atlanta and Denver. The new offices will be led by Joel Keating, managing director and team leader of the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast regions.

“This expansion in Atlanta and Denver reflects strong demand for the highly tailored financial solutions, personal service and sophisticated capabilities that City National is known for,” said Rich Raffetto, president of City National. “We serve this industry really well by creating custom solutions to help grow our clients’ businesses, and we understand the opportunities, challenges and trends. I’m excited to see this team lead the expansion of our Food and Beverage Group from coast to coast.”

“Joel is an outstanding leader, and we are delighted to have him drive our expansion in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast,” said City National’s head of National Corporate Banking Brent Williams. “We’re also thrilled to welcome Eric and Liz to the team. They bring deep food and beverage expertise that complements our growth strategy. I look forward to working with them as we help our clients achieve their financial goals.”

The Food & Beverage Group was founded five years ago and has doubled in size to nearly 25 bankers serving food and beverage companies throughout the nation. The team specializes in “farm to fork and coast to coast,” serving food and beverage processors, packers, distributors, agribusinesses and grocery retailers with expertise in sales, credit, sales management, operations and capital markets as they apply specifically to the food and beverage industry. Additionally, the team provides investment banking capabilities through RBC Capital Markets.

The team includes:

• Joel Keating, managing director and team leader of Northeast, Midwest and Southeast regions. Based in San Francisco, he is responsible for developing debt financing opportunities for food and beverage businesses throughout the country. Keating has more than 20 years of financial services experience, including 10 years of lending experience serving the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining City National, he served as a senior vice president with GE Capital’s Food & Beverage Group for five years. He previously held roles with Lloyds Banking Group in New York, London and Sydney. He began his career with GE Capital in Sydney. Keating earned his bachelor’s degree from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
  
  
• Eric Viergutz, senior vice president and senior relationship manager. Based out of Atlanta, he supports food and beverage executives with a variety of financing solutions and industry intelligence. Working with City National’s team of experts, he provides the bank’s full range of financial solutions to food and beverage businesses nationwide. Viergutz has more than 10 years of financial services and business advisory experience and has also served in various corporate finance and strategy roles over his career. Prior to City National, he served as senior vice president for Truist Securities’ Food and Beverage Investment Banking team. Viergutz earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida and his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
  
  
• Liz Bogdon, assistant vice president and associate relationship manager. Based out of Denver, she provides debt structuring, financial modeling and due diligence for originations in the national food and beverage industry. Bogdon has nearly 10 years of financial services experience, including seven years covering the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining City National, she served as a vice president and relationship manager with the Wells Fargo Food & Beverage Group, where she specialized in leveraged loans to beer distributors. She began her career at GE Capital and completed its leadership development Risk Management Program. Bogdon earned her bachelor’s degree from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina, where she majored in International Business and Finance.

City National is backed by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), one of North America’s leading diversified financial services companies and one of the strongest, most secure and best-performing banks in the world. RBC’s business model has a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to its 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries.

Click here for an image of Keating.

Click here for an image of Viergutz.

Click here for an image of Bogdon.