Washington Federal, Inc. Announces Board Succession Plans
July 01, 2021 at 10:00 pm
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Washington Federal, Inc. announced its board succession planning and the expected timeframes. Two directors, Chair Thomas Kelley and Dr. Barbara Smith, will not be nominated for re-election to the board in January 2022, consistent with the Company’s director retirement policy. In anticipation of this transition, the board announced that Director Stephen Graham will be appointed Chairman of the Board following the January 2022 annual meeting. In anticipation of the upcoming retirements, the board has increased the number of seats on the board to 12 and appointed three new directors, effective July 1, 2021: Ms. Sylvia Hampel, and Messrs. Sean Singleton and Shawn Bice. The appointment of these three executives with a wide range of banking, leadership and technology acumen is being done at this juncture to ensure continuity and allow for an orderly transition. Bolstering the bank’s commitment to becoming a digital-first bank, Mr. Shawn Bice, a technology executive for more than two decades, brings his expertise as President of Products and Technology at cloud data company Splunk. In addition, Bice is a former Amazon Web Services Vice President leading transformational cloud data services and a former Microsoft executive. Business owner and consultant Ms. Sylvia Hampel, who opened her own cleaning service in 1995 and grew it into one of the largest women-owned businesses in Idaho, brings 25 years of business management acumen to the WaFd Bank Board of Directors. Hampel, as President of her company Clearview Cleaning, expanded to over 450 custodial teams operating throughout Idaho and three other western states before selling her company to facility services giant KBS. She is a licensed real estate broker and owns her own real estate development company.
WaFd, Inc. is a bank holding company that conducts its primary business through its subsidiary, Washington Federal Bank. Washington Federal Bank, a federally insured Washington state chartered commercial bank doing business as WaFd Bank (the Bank), is engaged in providing lending, depository, insurance and other banking services to consumers, mid-sized to large businesses, and owners and developers of commercial real estate. The Bank's business consists primarily of accepting deposits from the general public and investing these funds in loans of various types, including first lien mortgages on single-family dwellings, construction loans, loans on multi-family, commercial real estate and other income producing properties, home equity loans and business loans. The Bank invests in certain United States government and agency obligations and other investments. The Bank has approximately 198 branches located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas.