Julia Gouw: Chief Financial Officer East West Bancorp Inc.

Residence: Pasadena

Born: Surabaya, Indonesia; 1959

Education: B.S. accounting, University of Illinois, Champaign. Active on several UCLA and civic philanthropic boards: was founding chairperson of the Executive Women's Advisory Board for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center and established an endowed chair for mood disorders research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Start in Banking: While at KPMG Peat Marwick audited the books of many businesses, including East West. Was impressed by the company and applied when they had an opening for comptroller in 1989.

Previous Jobs: After college in 1981, was hired at Los Angeles office of Texaco Inc. Was senior audit manager at the Los Angeles office of the international accounting firm KMBG from 1983 to 1989. Became chief financial officer at East West in 1994. Has been named among 25 most powerful women in banking by US Banker magazine in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

Target Market: East West's consumer banking operations still primarily serve Chinese-Americans, but an increasing percentage of commercial operations now serve mainstream companies seeking to do business in Asia. THe bank also solicits business from Asian companies wanting to expand into the U.S.

Expansion Plans: California offers the most opportunities for growth without leaving the state. East West plans to open commercial banking centers in Ontario and Fremont next year, but fewer retail branches because of their expense. The bank is expanding foreign trade business by offering non-Chinese businesses advisory and loan services on the Chinese market.

Philosophy: "Banks make money from managing risk--especially credit risk, interest rate risk and operational risk--so you must have a very strong risk management in place to be successful in the long run. Sometimes it's easy to try to make money in the short run, but it can dilute your earnings and overly increase your risk in the long run. As a public company it is even more important that you don't have volatile earnings."

Importance of Ethnic Banking: "People want to do business with people who understand their culture and their way of doing business."

Challenges: Expects growth from Chinese emigration to continue for at least the next 10 years, but the bank also wants to expand into the mainstream though foreign trade business. "Had we just stayed as a pure ethnic bank, eventually the market was not going to be big enough."