Helms to Replace Cooley as Seafirst CEO

Richard P. Cooley, 66, who helped BankAmerica Corp. turn the once-struggling Seafirst Corp. into one of the San Francisco banking firm’s most profitable units, announced that he is retiring as head of the Seattle unit at year-end. Cooley is chairman and chief executive of Seafirst Corp. and Seattle-First National Bank.

Luke Helms, 46, president of Seafirst’s Seattle-First National Bank, will succeed Cooley, who led Seafirst for seven years. Kevin B. Ferrell, 43, a Bank of America senior vice president, will succeed Helms.

Cooley helped engineer the sale of Seafirst to BankAmerica for $125 million in cash and $94 million in stock in 1983, after a rash of problem energy loans had Seafirst reeling. At the time, it was the largest interstate bank purchase.

The energy loans caused a $90.2-million loss at Seafirst in 1982. Much of the red ink resulted from loans that Seafirst bought from the scandal-plagued Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City, which failed in one of the banking industry’s biggest debacles.