Why banking?

When I graduated in 1986, it was at the tail end of a recession, and although my degree was in communications – I went to the Edward R. Murrow School of Communications at Washington State – the job opportunities were a little bit limited. There were a few opportunities in my hometown, and one of them ended up being at a bank that my mother knew. They offered me a position as a construction loan officer, and I fell in love with the interaction, the problem solving, the customer service perspective of it, and I really had no intentions of ever doing anything different. What I like about it is that at the end of the day, nothing in banking is repetitive, especially on the commercial side, the construction side. There is always a new challenge, and one of the things I always appreciated was truly helping somebody achieve some success in their life, and that always kept me going.

If you weren’t a banker, what would you be doing right now?

I enjoy this too much. There isn’t anything else I would rather do. I have a passion for sailing, but I don’t think you can make much money in that. So I think I was lucky to get into a career that I’ve enjoyed for the last 25 years, and I can honestly say I’ve never had any desire to do anything else.

These have been stressful times for bankers.

You can do two things during a stressful time; you can either use that experience and leverage that and become more successful, or you can find misfortune. I think it is one of the best times to become a banker … it has caused us to sharpen our skills, pick our game up, and I think as an industry it is going to make us a better industry, and as a bank, a better bank, and, for those who make it through this cycle, much better bankers. … I’ve said more than once that I’ve gotten 12 years of experience in the last 12 months.

How did you earn your first dollar?

I was a junior in high school … and my sister got me a job as a busboy at a restaurant. I learned at that age three things that have served me through my career. One was how to get along with people of different temperaments. Two was how to provide good customer service. And three was to be very well prepared because at the end of the night, the waitresses, if you were providing excellent customer service behind them and getting their tables cleaned and keeping everybody happy, they would share more of their tips with you. It’s kind of a microcosm of the business world as a whole. If you’re prepared for your job and you’re able to work with a variety of different people, at the end of the day, your customers enjoy the experience, both you and your business profit. It sure was a great learning experience.

What do you do to relax?

If we were having this interview 15 years ago, it would have been different. I was a competitive sailor and I did a lot of snow skiing. But, between my wife and my career, our days our very packed. We have to be very organized well into the future. We spend all of our non-work hours with our kids.

Who were your mentors?

My mom was as close to a mentor as I had. She really was the one who set me on the path. … All of that was due to her pushing for success by leading by example: Don’t ring your bell, do your best, focus on what you are doing and the rest will come. She never said to get a job with the most money or pick a company with the best profile. She said pick a good company in something you like to do and work as hard as you can and success will follow, and she has been right.

Any inspiring quote that gets you through the day?

“Success in business requires training, discipline and hard work, but if you are not frightened by these things, opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.” That’s from David Rockefeller. And I think that is very key because in today’s environment, although we are starting to see improvement in the economy and indicators seem to show progressive improvement, I think there are a lot of folks who are hesitant or tentative. If you are prepared and disciplined and work hard, there are as many opportunities today as there were in 2005 or 2002.