News Release

CLEVELAND, NAUMES NAMED TO FED COUNCIL

SAN FRANCISCO--Washington businessman Thomas E. Cleveland and Oregon agriculturist Laura Naumes have been appointed to the Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, announced Bank President Robert T. Parry. The purpose of the Council is to serve as an important source of information to the Federal Reserve System on the District's nine-state economy.

Cleveland, 50, is chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Access Business Finance, a Bellevue, Washington-based provider of asset-based working capital for financing small- and medium-sized businesses. He also founded Enterprise Bank, a commercial bank focused on independent businesses and Pacific Rim trade, which he ran for seven years before selling it in 1995.

Naumes, 42, is vice president of Naumes, Inc., the largest independent apple and pear grower in the United States, with orchards in Washington, Oregon, and California and juice concentrate plants in California and Washington. Headquartered in Medford, Oregon, this family-owned, totally integrated growing, packing, and shipping company was formed in 1946. Naumes, her husband, and her sister-in- law are the third generation to operate the company.

Cleveland is a graduate of the University of Arizona and the American Graduate School of International Management. He began his career in banking in 1971 as a trainee and account officer for Bank of America. In 1984, Cleveland was elected president and chief executive officer of Gibralter Savings of Washington and went on to found Enterprise Bank in 1988. Washington Mutual Bank acquired Enterprise in 1995. He also served as a Seattle Branch director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1993-1996.

Active in business and community activities, Cleveland has served as a director of 4-S Land & Cattle Company in California, chairman of the Center for Financial Studies at the University of Washington, a trustee of the Forest Ridge School, a mentor at Seattle University, and an advisory board member at its Albers School of Business. In addition, he has mentored the Seattle Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council for Small & Minority Owned Businesses, served as a director of the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club, and served as an executive committee member of the CARE Foundation Northwest Educational Seminar Series, among others.

Naumes is a graduate of Oregon State University with a degree in business marketing. She is a past president of the Rogue Valley Marketing Association and a member of the Oregon, Washington, California Pear Bureau. She is a member of the Northwest Horticultural Science and Technical Advisory Committee and the Winter Pear Control Stewardship and Technical Advisory Committee, and others.

Other members of the Twelfth Federal Reserve Bank District's Advisory Council include its chairman, Bailey S. (Biff) Barnard of Allied Capital Corporation in San Francisco; its vice chairman, Walter F. Payne, Jr., of Blue Diamond Growers in Sacramento, CA; Barbara Bry of ATCOM/INFO in San Diego, CA; Paula Collins of WDG Ventures, Inc., of San Francisco; Paul Ecke, III, of the Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, CA; Ed P. Mayne of the Utah AFL-CIO in West Valley City, UT; Lawrence S. Okinaga of Carlsmith Ball in Honolulu, HI; Peter Parra of the Kern County Board of Supervisors in Bakersfield, CA; Bob L. Vice of BLV Agribusiness Consultants in Fallbrook, CA; Richard S. Walden of the Farmers Investment Company in Sahuarita, Arizona; Don M. (Duff) Willey of Willey Motors, Inc., of Bountiful, UT; and Denice A. Young of Young Real Estate Group in Torrance, CA.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions in the nine western states through the home office in San Francisco and its branches in Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator, administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S. government.