President and CEO
Laura Lee “Laurie” Stewart started her banking career as a teller while attending college, but long before that she began to develop the capabilities that would serve her as a leader of a bank and in her industry.
“My quest for leadership goes back to childhood, where as the oldest of four daughters I was often thrust into the ‘leadership’ role with my siblings,” Stewart said.
In addition to leading the $923 million-asset Sound Community Bank in Seattle, Stewart is a past chair of the American Bankers Association and serves on the board of the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is the only non-tribal member of the board of the Jamestown S'klallam community development financial institution.
Through the steep challenges of the past year — and internal flux including the departure of a chief financial officer, the retirement of the chief credit officer and the shift to a remote workforce — Stewart kept her bank moving forward. The addition of an online portal during the pandemic, for example, helped it handle an increase in residential lending activity last year that was more than triple its 2019 volume.
As for the C-suite vacancies, Stewart took the opportunity to restructure the leadership team, naming a single executive, Wes Ochs, as the bank’s chief financial officer and chief strategy officer.
Stewart then began recruiting for a new position of chief accounting officer. The best candidate, who was raising two young children in Southern California, was unable to move for the job in Seattle, so Stewart adapted, resolving some compliance issues to make the hire possible.
“We are too small to recruit in every state, but we are not afraid to think creatively about job structure and locale," she said.
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In her free time, Stewart is an avid seamstress. Having started at age 10, she advanced from sewing her own clothes to making wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. She also enjoys creating crib-sized quilts for newborns.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, she started sewing masks. “I made many — hundreds upon hundreds,” Stewart said. “When elastic could not be found online or in stores anywhere, I reached out using the ABA, and bankers from around the country shared their stockpiles so I could keep making masks.”
Stewart often speaks out on diversity, equity and inclusion issues, whether as a guest on NPR's “Marketplace” or in the op-ed pages of publications like the Puget Sound Business Journal.
“There is a lot of room for diversity in community banking and I would like to leave a legacy of a C-suite that embraces women, faces of color and the LGBTQIA+ population,” she said.
