"The Pacific Rim Bankers Program is founded on the premise that education is the wellspring of national development." KERMIT O. HANSON, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN EMERITUS OF THE PACIFIC RIM BANKERS PROGRAM DEAN EMERITUS UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

The concept of a program for bankers from nations bordering the Pacific Ocean first occurred to Dr. Kermit O. Hanson, then Dean of School of Business Administration at the University of Washington and concurrently Educational Director of the Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS), when he was returning to Seattle on a flight from Australia in late November 1975. A tour of Pacific Rim nations and the awareness of the significant developments in the western Pacific convinced Dean Hanson that real potential for economic growth and opportunity existed among the nations bordering on the Pacific.

On December 1975, Dean Hanson first presented the concept of the program to bankers from the western United States serving on the Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS) Administrative Committee. None of the members had experience in international banking and the reaction was one of caution since the idea seemed very foreign. However, they gradually did agree to support a program and present the concept to the PCBS Board of Directors.

The Board Chairman, at the time, Alvin J. Schoenhals, Senior Vice President of Zions First National Bank in Salt Lake City; Vice Chairman Ralph J. Crawford, Vice Chairman of Well Fargo Bank, NA, in San Francisco; and a few other Board members reacted very positively. Their interest prompted the Board to appoint a task force chaired by Crawford to explore the nature, need and feasibility of a program for Pacific Rim bankers.

The task force went about with the proposal of the program, and on September 3, 1976, the Board unanimously approved the task force recommendation that a three week Pacific Rim Bankers Program be offered. The task force also set out primary goals for PRBP which were:

• Examine issues of mutual interest to all Pacific Rim nations
• Improve participants’ abilities to handle banking and management problems
• Facilitate banking relationships between the U.S. and other Pacific Rim nations

Today, these goals still hold true for PRBP, and we continue to offer your officers the best program to help them succeed in this current globalized business world.