After an exhaustive search, the directors of Westsound Bank in Bremerton recently named Dave Johnson as the new president and CEO. He replaces longtime local banker Klaus Golombek who was the founding president.

Johnson, who came to Westsound from Pueblo, Colo., spent the last four years as executive vice president at Pueblo Bank and Trust.
What lured him to Bremerton? “I saw Westsound as a great opportunity for a young person such as myself,” said Johnson, who is 36. “I had an opportunity to gain an ownership position in the bank, and I see a lot of opportunity in this area.”

Johnson has been in the banking business for 21 years — his entire working life — starting out in his teens. “I worked in my dad’s bank,” he chuckled. “My dad was a banker too.”

He started out in the mail room and has held just about every position in a bank at one time or another. “I think that gives me a unique perspective,” he said. “I can relate to the problems a teller or bookkeeper might be having at a level most bankers can’t.”

When asked if he understood just what it was he was getting into coming to a fairly new bank headquartered in an abandoned downtown area, Johnson answered he did, noting that the bank doesn’t just do business in downtown Bremerton, but all over the area.

“The board was totally honest about the situation here,” he stated. “But there’s a lot of upside as well, and that has a lot of appeal to me. I think we’ll see the renaissance of downtown Bremerton in a short period of time, and we see that as a great opportunity for this bank to be positioned right in the middle of all of it.”

Johnson can be reached at (360) 405-1200.