SEATTLE – (COMMERCIAL THREAD) – Washington Federal, Inc. (Nasdaq: WAFD) (the “Company”), parent company of Washington Federal Bank, National Association (“WaFd Bank”) today announced the succession planning of its board of administration and timeframes. Two directors, Chairman Thomas Kelley and Dr. Barbara Smith, will not be nominated for re-election to the board in January 2022, in accordance 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.

Chairman Kelley said: “We are very pleased with the leadership of WaFd Bank and believe that Mr. Graham is uniquely qualified to lead the Board of Directors as we continue to focus on our transition to a highly profitable and focused bank. on digital. He brings a deep understanding of the values ​​that have helped the company thrive for over 100 years, a respect for the role of regulation and a real-world understanding of our opportunity to gain market share as the market consolidates. industry is accelerating.

Kelley continued, “I would like to thank Dr. Barbara Smith for her fifteen years of outstanding service to the Board of Directors of our shareholders. She was instrumental in going beyond the issues and focusing on the strategic imperatives around employee culture and engagement to create long-term franchise value.

In anticipation of the upcoming retirements, the Board has increased the number of board seats to 12 and appointed three new directors, effective July 1, 2021: Ms. Sylvia Hampel and Messrs. Sean Singleton and Shawn Bice. Appointment of these three executives with a wide range of banking, leadership and technology knowledge is underway at this stage to ensure continuity and enable an orderly transition.

Reinforcing the bank’s commitment to becoming a digitally-driven bank, Mr. Shawn Bice, a technology executive for more than two decades, brings his expertise as president of products and technology to cloud data company Splunk. In addition, Bice is a former vice president of Amazon Web Services heading up transformational cloud data services and a former Microsoft executive. “M. Bice’s twenty years of experience in technological leadership positions brings cutting-edge knowledge and operational expertise to achieve the bank’s goal of harnessing data to reinvent and reinvent customer experiences,” said Brent Beardall, Chairman and CEO of WaFd.

Business owner and consultant Ms. Sylvia Hampel, who opened her own cleaning service in 1995 and turned it into one of Idaho’s largest women-owned businesses, brings 25 years of keen sense of business management on the board of directors of WaFd Bank. Hampel, as president of her company Clearview Cleaning, expanded to more than 450 security crews operating in Idaho and three other western states before selling her business to facility services giant KBS. She is a certified real estate broker and has her own real estate development company. “Ms. Hampel is a self-taught and tenacious entrepreneur, who has proven time and time again that she can overcome challenges and be successful. We value her perspective on the competitive landscape and her problem-solving skills to meet the challenges ahead. Adds Beardall.

“To complement our mission to be the most valued regional bank in the markets we serve, we are proud to welcome Mr. Sean Singleton to our Board of Directors. Beardall continued, “Mr. Singleton’s deep experience in capital markets, starting with his time at JP Morgan Chase, supporting fintech venture capital engagements as founder of Oglethorpe Capital LLC, and his passion for financial literacy will help guide our strategy going forward.Originally, we got to know each other when he was representing an investment firm, and during the study of our business model, we noted the strategy WaFd Bank’s progressive step towards using data to improve the customer experience and generate value for customers and shareholders.

The Washington Federal Bank, a national bank headquartered in Seattle, Washington, has 226 branches in eight western states. To learn more about WaFd Bank, please visit our website www.wafdbank.com.

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