As River City Bank’s Vice President, Credit Manager, Dominick Carlson manages a team of commercial credit analysts tasked with recommending prospective commercial loans for approval based on the loan’s credit assessment. His team is responsible for identifying the associated risks and evaluating historical business operations, company background, industry outlook, and the current economic environment.
We spoke with the avid photographer about resiliency, the beauty of the Sacramento region, the calming effects of coffee, and seeing the world through a different lens.
Hometown: Temecula, CA
First Job: Summer intern at a medical supply company working in their billing department.
First Car: Dodge Stratus. Zero to 60 in a cool 20 seconds.
Favorite Movie: The Prestige – who doesn’t love magic, plot twists, and David Bowie?
What is something people would be surprised to know about you? One of my favorite hobbies is taking photos, particularly out in nature while backpacking. I love the challenge of finding unique compositions for a given scene.
Favorite song: The answer changes by the week. To my wife’s chagrin, I’ll listen to a new favorite song on repeat for days until we are both sick of it. Whoops.
Favorite Quote(s): “Good job, Dominick.” Just kidding. The two that have had the largest impact on me both professionally and personally are: (i) “Success has many fathers, but Failure is an orphan” and (ii) “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”
Favorite place in Sacramento: The American River – particularly William B Pond and Bend Park. I love getting out in the early morning to take photos of the wildlife during sunrise.
What are you reading right now? I know the ‘right’ answer here is some sophisticated finance or business book. In reality, though, I generally just read Fantasy and Science Fiction in my downtime. Right now, I’m re-reading the excellent Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
Morning ritual: Making pour-over coffee in the Chemex or an espresso in the Mocha Pot. I love the precision of weighing out freshly ground beans, measuring out the appropriate milligrams of water, and timing the process down to the second. If I’m honest with myself, I probably can’t really tell the difference in quality, but it does put me in the right headspace.
Which living person(s) do you most admire? My parents for an inexhaustible number of reasons. Just one of those reasons is how they ‘teach by doing,’ which has shown me — and the people around them — the value of working hard, planning for the future, giving time to others, and finding humor in everything.
What is your biggest takeaway from Covid-19? I think there will be plenty more “takeaways” to be had in the future, but for now, I’ve been most surprised with our collective resiliency. It’s remarkable how quickly we were all able to adapt to the situation in really just a matter of days; working from home, socially distancing, and wearing masks all became second nature. Last year was certainly emotionally tough, but for the most part, we got it done.
What do you like best about working at River City Bank? Although we are a large community bank by asset size, we have maintained a relatively small team of exceptionally talented bankers. While at times this means we each have to navigate a heavy workload, more importantly, it means we individually can have a meaningful, direct impact on the success of our clients and the bank itself. I feel like what I’m doing today always actually matters and will indeed move the needle. It’s exciting.
