When I met with Joseph Reid and learned about the business model for Capitol Bancorp
Limited in June 2004, I felt it would be a great fit for the banking environment
and economy of the Pacific Northwest.
One of the core values of Capitol Bancorp is entrepreneurship. The Greater Seattle
and Puget Sound Regions of Washington state have had a long history of great entrepreneurs
starting with Boeing and Weyerhaeuser, and more recently with Microsoft Corporation,
Costco, Amazon.com and Starbucks, among others. Developing local community banks
built with a similar entrepreneurial spirit is a natural. We have opened four banks
in Washington, all named for their cornerstone communities in the Region.
The state of Oregon holds some compelling demographics for community banks. This
is especially true for the city of Bend and Deschutes County, where the population
has more than doubled in the last eight years. We have successfully launched one
bank in the state, High Desert Bank, which opened in 2007.