Bess Alpaugh, a kinetic community banker from suburban Seattle, is scheduled to become president of the Western Independent Bankers.
The trade group, which represents 250 independent banks throughout the West, plans to elect Ms. Alpaugh, president of American Marine Bank, at its annual convention this week in Hawaii.
"She's an incredible leader with a lot of energy and enthusiasm," said Nancy Sheppard, executive director of Western Independent Bankers. "I mean, this is a woman who says she wants to join the Peace Corps when she retires."
Ms. Alpaugh said American Marine, which is on Bainbridge Island across Puget Sound from Seattle, has been a Western Independent member since 1949, and she's long been a proponent of the group's executive education programs.
"The educational programs have been very successful. That's always been a large part of our focus, and I want to concentrate on that this year," said Ms. Alpaugh, who will be the first woman to lead the trade group.
Ms. Alpaugh got her first job in banking in 1949 with Washington Trust Bank in Spokane, where she worked to put her husband through law school. She was a teacher for a number of years, raised six kids, and has taken 12 years' maternity leave since she first joined American Marine in 1954.
Her husband died 25 years ago, and she went back to work at American Marine as a secretary for $500 a week. She became an officer in 1972 and president in 1989.
Western Independent is the only regional independent bankers' association in the United States. It is rarely overtly political, preferring to concentrate its resources on providing services and executive education.
Ms. Sheppard said that this year the group will expand its for-profit member services company, which was formed last year to provide third-party annuity and mutual fund sales through banks. The group will hire GE Residential Express as a third-party mortgage servicer for members.
Ms. Alpaugh has had a front-row seat on the changing community bank marketplace in the West. As she's fond of saying, "When I started here, we had one gas station and one bank. Now, we have one gas station and nine banks."
Bainbridge Island is an affluent bedroom community east of Seattle. In 1988, American Marine halved its footings to $50 million by selling eight branches on the mainland to what was then Seafirst Bank. Today, the bank has more than made up for it: With just two branches, it has $122 million in assets and grew 22% last year.
