Community Bank of the Bay Announces Formation of Bay Area Green Fund Advisory Committee

OAKLAND, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 15, 2015) - Community Bank of the Bay (OTCBB: CBYAA) (CBB) announced today it has recruited five objective environmental experts to serve on the Bay Area Green Fund Advisory Committee.

Since 1996, CBB has promoted job creation and economic revitalization by providing flexible financing to local businesses and non- profits. Wanting to also support the viability of a more environmentally friendly economy, CBB created the Bay Area Green Fund (BAGF) in 2007. Re-launched in 2015, the BAGF has evolved into an innovative way for depositors and borrowers to become "green" Impact Investors through their support of environmentally sustainable projects and businesses.

Banks stimulate the economy by lending out a portion of the money that has been entrusted to them by depositors. The BAGF enables depositors to influence what type of projects and businesses will be financed. "As CBB's deposit base grows, so does our capacity to finance businesses and non-profits that are benefiting the environment," says CBB President and CEO William Keller.

"We're very excited about this new Advisory Committee and the wealth of knowledge its members will bring to the Bay Area Green Fund," says Mr. Keller. The Advisors will contribute in a range of ways towards the program's success but their primary responsibility will be to determine, after an application for financing has been approved, whether the borrower's project or business is sustainable.

The following Advisors are volunteers who were recruited because of their experience with sustainable business practices, energy conservation, recycling, waste reduction, green building, impact investing, alternative financing, business development and/or other related facets of creating a more environmentally sustainable economy.

Debbie Beyea
Deputy Director, Ecology Center

Debbie Beyea is Deputy Director for the Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the environmental impacts of urban residents. Ms. Beyea holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Texas. She oversees the Ecology Center's finances, human resources, grant accounting, and other administrative functions.

Ms. Beyea is involved with Berkeley Be Ready Business Program as a volunteer and is active in the community. She appreciates the opportunity to be a part of Community Bank of the Bay's effort to support projects that help sustainably, and to increase awareness of the effects of human activities on the earth and other species by quantifying loan projects in terms of their environmental impact.

Lauryn Agnew
President, Seal Cove Financial

With nearly three decades of experience in developing and implementing strategies in the institutional investment industry, Lauryn Agnew serves as a resource to non-profit organizations for investment consulting services and provides fiduciary education and trustee training for public fund and non-profit board and committee members.

Currently, Ms. Agnew is a trustee on the Board of the San Mateo County Employees' Retirement Association, a defined benefit plan with $3.0 billion in assets. She is the Chair of the investment committee at the United Way of the Bay Area and former Board member and chair of the investment committee of the Girl Scouts of Northern California. She also serves the Girl Scouts of the USA Pension Advisory Committee and on the Cornerstone Capital Global Advisory Committee.

Ron Elvidge
Venture Capitalist

Mr. Elvidge is an Impact Investor with direct experience in alternative energy, recycled and zero impact product manufacturing and sustainable food production. He has served as a voting member of the Threshold Foundation's Sustainable Planet Grants Committee that sought to fund projects that ensure our planet remains a healthy, well-functioning, and biologically diverse home for all life that resides on it.

Prior to becoming an investor, Mr. Elvidge was president of Income Property Services, a boutique commercial real estate investment firm in Walnut Creek. Mr. Elvidge graduated from Chico State with a finance degree. He and his wife live on a small family farm in the North Bay where they practice organic gardening and strive to maintain as low a carbon footprint as possible. He participates on the Bay Area Green Fund advisory committee because it provides a forum to disrupt the established systems, including the financial system, which has put our ecology on the path to destruction.

Ryan Gardner, MESM, LEED AP, ENV SP
Sustainability Associate, Rincon Consultants

Ryan Gardner holds a BA in biology from Kalamazoo College and a Masters of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at the University of California Santa Barbara. Mr. Gardner is a LEED Accredited Professional specializing in EB+OM and is also an Envision certified Sustainability Professional. He also has experience in life cycle assessment, green building, and human effects on the environment.

Mr. Gardner believes that sustainability means efficiency, longevity, and preparedness. Incorporating sustainability into a business or project should not be viewed as another box to check, but rather a chance to decrease costs, streamline operations, and create a healthier, more robust, and ultimately more profitable product.

Steven H. Smith, AICP
Senior Environmental Planner, City and County of San Francisco

Steven Smith manages the planning processes for large-scale infrastructure and urban development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. He's a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and an accredited professional in the Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design neighborhood development rating system. Mr. Smith volunteers with Green Empowerment, a Portland-based nonprofit focused on international development approaches that alleviate poverty while improving the environment.

About CBB
Community Bank of the Bay (CBB) is a local relationship bank that offers affordable FDIC-insured deposit services to individuals, businesses and non-profits. It is also a SBA Preferred Lender that specializes in providing flexible financing to small-mid sized businesses and non-profits. CBB was the first bank in California to be certified by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Now one of only three CDFI banks in the Bay Area, CBB has received the U.S. Department of Treasury's Business Enterprise Aware (BEA) 13 times because of its lending in low to moderate income communities. CBB is also a certified Bay Area Green Business that was founded and is headquartered in Oakland with offices in Danville, San Mateo and the South Bay. Please visit www.bankcbb.com or contact Winter Williams at wwilliams@bankcbb.com or (510)433-5417 for additional information about CBB and the Bay Area Green Fund (BAGF).