Bank-Buyout Executives Opt For Retirement

Several Puget Sound Bank executives, including President Don Vandenheuvel, have changed their minds and rejected the jobs they were offered by Key Bank, which is buying out their company.

The deal won't be completed for about two months, but Key has lost two executive vice presidents, a personnel director and a mortgage-company president in addition to Vandenheuvel, who would have been vice chairman.

This shuffling in the top ranks takes place as tellers and other branch employees scramble for jobs due to the closure of 22 overlapping branches. Key Bank officials had announced the branch closures to employees but not to the public before today.

The branches that will close in staggered dates beginning next month (three close before the buyout is complete) are: Magnolia, North Creek, Cornwall (a Bellingham National Bank branch), Ballard, Bellevue, 196th Street, SeaTac Village, Wedgwood, First Hill, Renton, West Olympia, Downtown Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Northgate, Olympia, 35th & Union, University Village, Enumclaw, Fourth & Union, Fircrest and Mercer Island.

Rob Gill, Key Bank of Washington spokesman, said employees of eliminated branches will be given first consideration for new jobs at adjacent branches. He said the number of branch positions should be close to "a wash," despite the closures, because of new hiring in other branches.

Bank officials say the buyout probably will eliminate 100 to 150 jobs, most of them back-office and support positions.

Regarding the executives, Gill said those who are retiring or resigning decided to take advantage of early retirement and severance offers, or simply wanted career changes. Some agreed to serve as consultants for several months after the buyout is completed in January.

"These individuals are a tremendous resource," Hans Harjo, Key Bank of Washington president and chief executive, said in a written release. "They are intent on making the merger successful for both customers and employees."

Vandenheuvel, who agreed to a consulting role, said yesterday he could not pass up a deal written into his original Puget Sound Bank contract, which offered him full retirement benefits if his bank was bought out by another. Vandenheuvel, who will be 59 next month, has been with the bank 36 years.

"In a way I feel like I'm kind of bailing out on everybody, which I didn't want to do," Vandenheuvel said.

Although he focused on the retirement incentives as his reason for leaving, he acknowledged reservations about working for a corporation headquartered in New York - not Tacoma, where Puget Sound Bank is based.

"There is a big difference when you go from being involved in the management of a corporation, where you set policy . . . to one where you have a new parent that sets policy," he said. He voted for the buyout as a board member to give shareholders the chance to vote, he said. But in his heart he wanted the bank to remain independent.

Ray Highsmith, executive vice president, and Dave Nasman, president of subsidiary Bellingham National Bank, also will retire when the buyout is complete.

Jim Maxwell, president of Puget Sound Savings Bank, a mortgage bank, will resign in January, as will personnel director Tex Whitney. Dale Clark, an executive vice president, will resign in June.