Business
Washington Federal Announces Board Succession Plans
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Washington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the “Company”), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, National Association (“WaFd
About this update from Wafd, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":" SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nWashington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the “Company”), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, National Association (“WaFd Bank”) today 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 is pleased to announce that Director Stephen Graham will be appointed Chairman of the Board following the January 2022 annual meeting.\n\nChairman Kelley commented, “We are very pleased with the direction of WaFd Bank and believe that Mr. Graham is uniquely qualified to lead the board as we continue to focus on our transition to a highly profitable, digital-first bank. He brings a deep understanding of the values that have helped the company thrive for more than 100 years, a respect for the role of regulation, and a real world understanding of our opportunity to take market share as industry consolidation accelerates.”\n\nKelley continued, “I want to thank Dr. Barbara Smith for her fifteen years of exceptional board service to our shareholders. She has been instrumental in looking beyond the issues at hand and focusing on strategic imperatives around culture and employee engagement to build long-term franchise value.”\n\nIn 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.\n\nBolstering 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. “Mr. Bice’s twenty years in technology leadership roles bring cutting-edge insight and operational expertise to drive the bank’s goal of leveraging data to reimagine and re...