Makayla Ciminelli

Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Credit Officer,
Five Star Bank

This story is part of our July 2026 Young Professionals issue. To read the print version, click here.




Makayla Ciminelli has always been ambitious. As the
youngest of five siblings growing up in Fresno, she was an
achiever at an early age. “I was a perfectionist from
kindergarten,” she says. “My parents used to joke that they had
to worry about all my other siblings, but I was the one who would
check my own grades. I wanted to make sure that I had straight
A’s. I would never want to be in trouble.”

Ciminelli, 31, pushed herself through school, working toward a
goal to secure scholarships because she knew she’d have to pay
for her college education. She worked the 4 a.m. shift as a
barista at Peet’s Coffee while taking a full course load. Her
first big challenge was when she almost lost a scholarship due to
a typo but fought to successfully get it back.

She graduated from the University of the Pacific with a major in
international relations and a minor in economics. As part of her
international studies, she was required to live abroad for four
months, so she shared an apartment with five young women in
Stirling, Scotland. She was one of two Americans, with one each
from Germany, France, Switzerland and Scotland. “It was really
fun, the amount of different things we learned about each other,”
she says.

She planned on a career in nonprofits until, during her job
search, UOP professor Dr. Sharmila King told her Five Star Bank
in Sacramento was recruiting college graduates. She went through
a thorough vetting process in the management trainee program,
which included an interview with CEO James Beckwith. “I thought
it was really amazing that a CEO was willing to sit down with
someone who was just looking for their entry-level job out of
college,” she says.

“What makes America great is that we really are a country of
different cultures, immigrants, people who have different
languages, different belief systems, connecting back to
everything I enjoy about learning and really wanting the desire
to understand different perspectives and where people come
from.”

Ciminelli started as a credit analyst in the credit department
and quickly rose through the ranks through hard work. “I was
always the person who when they needed something done, they
wanted somebody to work extra hours, take on an additional
project, really be the boots on the ground for something. I
volunteered,” she says.

For example, when the bank needed someone to scan thousands of
documents to convert them into a new cloud system, Ciminelli
volunteered. She credits her parents for that mindset, saying
they didn’t have much, but they taught her to work hard.

While at Five Star Bank, Ciminelli developed her skills with
banking courses at Pacific Coast Banking School at the University
of Washington. She now supervises a staff of 34. When the
pandemic hit, she was chosen to head up the Paycheck Protection
Program loans. She worked 15- to 20-hour days sometimes to make
sure Five Star Bank’s small businesses got the financial help
they needed. Her hard work in getting 1,500 PPP loans approved
was recognized.

“It was a ton of work. I did not sleep. I probably averaged
during that time period maybe two or three hours of sleep. They
were long days, 20-hour days of just getting the funds out. But I
was in it, and I really valued the experience, because you could
see the direct impact,” she says.

Ciminelli credits her mentor, the bank’s Senior Vice President
and Chief Credit Officer Jim Dalton for sharing his expertise
with her. “He invited me to the table so I could be part of key
discussions and contribute to leadership decisions, and gave me
the opportunity to learn directly from him, which has been
invaluable,” she says.

But after nine years of her “nose to the grindstone” and becoming
an expert on credit, Ciminelli says she wants to start giving
back more to her community. “Professional growth is more than
just where you move in your career, right? Professional growth
includes and is holistic of how you’re involved in the community,
so I want that to continue,” she says.

Ciminelli is an advocate with the CASA program for foster youth,
a member of the Junior Achievement and is a member of the
Sacramento Metro Chamber’s leadership program. She’s also helped
with the International Rescue Committee by teaching new
immigrants business skills, such as learning Excel and navigating
job sites.

Ciminelli and her husband, Andrew, a woodworker whom she met at
UOP, love the outdoors and enjoy hiking, paddleboarding and
kayaking. They have two dogs, Nugget, a beagle-retriever mix, and
Butter, a Shiba Inu. “I definitely need to be outside to
recharge.”

As for her thoughts on America’s 250th birthday: “What makes
America great is that we really are a country of different
cultures, immigrants, people who have different languages,
different belief systems, connecting back to everything I enjoy
about learning and really wanting the desire to understand
different perspectives and where people come from.”

–

View the list of
honorees from 2015 through 2026.

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