Phooey on retirement.

Chairman George Graziadio claims he's having too much fun running Imperial Bancorp to think about retiring

At 76, George Graziadio, chairman, chief executive officer and cofounder of Imperial Bancorp, is having much too much of a good time to retire.

"The thrill of the chase is more important than getting to the goal." Graziadio says. Furthermore, "retirement, quite frankly, has never been a goal of mine," he says.

"The truth of it is I enjoy what I do," he says. "I enjoy interacting with the young folks."

Graziadio's retirement plans may be on the minds of some Wall Street folks, since he and his family own 20 percent of the stock of Imperial Bancorp.

Wall Street analysts consider Imperial Bancorp, with $2.4 billion in assets and nine offices statewide, a plum of an acquisition target.

But Graziadio says, "The company is not for sale. And we have had some people come by and ask if we are for sale."

The best thing for the shareholders, right now, he adds, is "profitable growth." he says. "Some day this company could be acquired, or there could be a merger, but I don't see it happening right now."

Graziadio is going to keep running the bank. "God willing, (as long as) I have good health and lots of energy."

He doesn't seem like a man who is more than 10 years past the age when bank chiefs typically retire. Graziadio is an imposing figure at 6 foot 1 inch, with bright blue eyes and a sharp wit.

"I'm not bashful at all about my age," he deadpans. "I'm 39."

Graziadio grew up in Connecticut, the son of a real estate auctioneer. He began working for his father at 14, even auctioning off real estate as a teenager. He moved to California in 1941.

He didn't start out as a banker, but a commercial real estate broker. In 1958, Graziadio met a building contractor named George Eltinge, and they immediately hit it off.

They started a real estate development company called Eltinge & Graziadio Development Co. in 1958. In 1963, they started Imperial Bank on the corner of Western Avenue and (its namesake) Imperial Highway.

Graziadio becomes visibly upset at a mention of Eltinge, who died in 1994 at the age of 76.

"I miss him terribly," he says. "He wasn't just a partner, he was my best friend.

"I was the nuts and bolts guy," Graziadio says, while Eltinge was the creative part of the team. "He was like my brother and I was like his brother. And (neither) of us had a brother."

They had a lot of fun together, especially in the early days of running the bank, he recalls. They had some wild branch openings.

Once they brought a full-grown male African lion (Imperial's mascot is the lion) to a bank opening. (Graziadio has a photo of himself walking the beast on a chain.)

Another time, they dropped $1 bills out of a helicopter. "People were running around with butterfly nets," Graziadio recalls.

Another bank opening, which made national news, was when they hired a flagpole sitter to stay up in a "little hut" at the top of a flagpole until they opened up 3,000 accounts. The man stayed up there day and night, and an Imperial bank teller brought him his meals, he says.

"We decided to keep the bank open 24 hours a day and we had a mariachi band that played at 2 in the morning," Graziadio recalls with a laugh.

After a week or so, the flagpole sitter decided he had had enough, even though the branch had not hit its 3,000-account goal, he says. After he quit, he married the teller who brought him his meals and that made national news, Graziadio says.

All of these moves were meant to attract retail business, but after a few years, Graziadio says, he and Eltinge realized "we were spending 80 percent of our time on 20 percent of our business and 20 percent of our time on 80 percent of our business."

They decided to make Imperial a business bank. Imperial, Graziadio notes proudly, is the only independent business bank with offices across the state. Says Charlotte Chamberlain, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, a Los Angeles investment firm, "It's a good, solid bank with good, solid earnings potential."

Imperial, like almost all commercial banks on the Westside, went through some tough times with loan losses during the early 1990s.

But in November, due to improvements in the bank's financial condition, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. lifted an informal regulatory order Imperial had been operating under since 1993. And earnings improved immensely in 1995 over 1994.

According to Chamberlain, "Imperial has done a magnificent job of turning the bank around."

Imperial reported earnings of $14.4 million, or $1.02 a share, for the first nine months of 1995. That represents a 241 percent increase over year-earlier earnings of $4.2 million, or 33 cents a share.

And Graziadio is confident earnings are only going to get better as the California economy improves.

"I am so excited about this state of California," he says.

Graziadio intends for Imperial to take advantage of this new California boom. And he acknowledges that may mean Imperial buying another bank or banks.

"We are looking into a couple of other deals to acquire other banks," he says. "Whether it happens or not, we'll see."

On Jan. 12, the company announced it had hired New York investment firm Lehman Bros. Inc. as its financial adviser to help "evaluate various growth opportunities, including acquisitions of financial services businesses in and around its service territory."

With or without an acquisition, Imperial is going to increase its size and presence in California, Graziadio says. "We see a lot of opportunities to expand."

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George Graziadio

Age: 76 Native of: Vernon, Conn. Resident of: Palos Verdes Peninsula Education: attended USC Spouse: Reva