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Julia Gouw

President and Chief Operating Officer

Julia S. Gouw is President and Chief Operating Officer of East West Bancorp, Inc. and East West Bank – one of the nation’s premier regional banks. Gouw oversees the Bank's operations including finance, treasury, investor relations, enterprise risk management, credit administration, deposit and loan operations, and information technology. East West Bancorp was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as the second best bank in the nation in 2010. Gouw originally joined the Bank from KPMG LLP in 1989 as Controller and quickly rose through the ranks to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the position she held from 1994 to 2008. Under Gouw’s leadership, East West achieved 11 consecutive years of record earnings – a stellar track record widely recognized throughout the banking and investment communities. U.S. Banker magazine four times ranked Gouw among the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” and Institutional Investor magazine twice named her among the “Best CFO’s in America.” Gouw serves on the Board of Visitors of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where she established an Endowed Chair for Mood Disorders Research. She is the founding Chair of the Executive Women’s Advisory Board for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center and serves on the Board of Directors of The UCLA Foundation. Gouw is also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Pacific Mutual Holding Company and PacificLife Corp. Born and raised in Indonesia, Gouw came to the United States in 1978 where she earned her B.S. degree in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She then became a Certified Public Accountant and worked for the international accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick, LLP as a Senior Audit Manager until joining East West in 1989.