Published August 2002

U.S. Bank’s state president credits local ties for company’s success

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

U.S. Bank’s new Washington state president, Ken Kirkpatrick, is a walk-around, drive-around, on-the-move manager who loves visiting with as many employees as he can, including the ones who operate Snohomish County’s 13 branch offices from Canyon Park to Smokey Point, he said in a recent visit to the Everett office.

Responsible for the bank’s concentration of more than 70 offices in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, Kirkpatrick moved into the president’s office in Seattle on Jan. 2, following former President Pat Dineen’s retirement.

“We have deposits in the county of more than $200 million. We are definitely looking to increase lending activity in Snohomish County, and we expect the economy will come back. Even now, some sectors such as home building and auto sales — both highly interest-rate dependent — are strong,” he said.

One example of strength in the economy and the strength of the bank’s role in the area economy is the recent bankwide competition that pitted offices against each other in meeting goals for new consumer and business accounts, business loans and related business growth, he said.

“And the Everett office won over all the others,” he said, grinning. “There was a lot of competition. It was a huge contest.”

Everett Office Manager Rhonda Gunter said the bank’s grand prize for the Everett staff last month was a weekend with their families at a resort in Coeur d’Alene and the nearby Silverwood amusement park.

“It was a good bonding experience for everyone. We loved it,” Gunter said. “We set our goals and made them.”

Kirkpatrick’s character, manner and personality seem to epitomize what corporate presidents should be, particularly in the banking industry — personable, engaging, goal-oriented, innovative, energized, aggressive but not abrasive, and focused on people, whether they are employees or customers. But he also takes pride in being local.

“We’re a very local bank. Our commercial banking group in Everett has two longtime bankers, Gary Dale and Ron Claussen, who each have been living and working in the community for 20 years,” he said.

“We have local credit-approval people in our branches, a local board and a local president who’s been with the bank for 31 years. Most of the money we deal with stays right here in our communities and gets recycled through the local economy. Plus, we donate to local charities, scholarships, the arts and cultural needs.”

Growing up in Seattle’s White Center neighborhood, he began work for People’s Bank, the bank that would later become part of U.S. Bank, as a teller when he was only 17. A decade later, in 1980, he became manager of the bank’s Bellevue branch, a vice president at 27.

In the first year he established a private banker-loan center concept at the branch, the loan portfolio grew to $6 million. By the time he left as executive vice president of the commercial banking group to become president of the bank’s Washington operations, the Bellevue office had 30 private bankers and a loan portfolio of $1.5 billion.

When Kirkpatrick began as president, U.S. Bank’s CEO Jerry Grundhofer gave him a single, simple goal to achieve, Kirkpatrick related: “All I want you to do is what you did in Bellevue.”

A key to Kirkpatrick’s success has been his involvement with Junior Achievement, a free-enterprise education program he embraced at 17 and has never left.

“When I talk to groups of new employees, as part of their orientation, I tell them this story about opportunity and Junior Achievement. Because of J.A., I totally grasped concepts of business, opportunity and customer service,” he said.

In the ninth grade, one paragraph in a book about John Paul Getty, then the richest man in the world, recommended getting involved with Junior Achievement to learn about America’s free-enterprise system. And he did, walking and busing his way from White Center to Seattle for weekly meetings.

He not only became president of his J.A. company, he was chosen by People’s Bank as J.A.’s Achiever of the Year and hired there as a teller — for a day. When the bank realized he was only 17 and couldn’t be bonded, he lost his job. But he refused to quit, returning the next morning. He needed that job for his college expenses.

By the next morning, the staff had the decision from the executive who had hired him: “Kenny’s a good kid. He’s a Junior Achiever. Break the rules and give him the job.”

Kirkpatrick has never forgotten the opportunities J.A. has given him, including hiring him as a janitor at the J.A. offices as he worked his way through the University of Washington for his degree, majoring in finance.

Since he joined the bank 31 years ago, he has been a teller, branch manager, executive vice president for the commercial banking group and now president of U.S. Bank of Washington. But he also has been on the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Greater Puget Sound for 14 years, serving as president two years ago.

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