First Western Trust Hires Chuck Watts as Regional President for Arizona

PHOENIX, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Western Trust Bank* (“First Western Trust”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Western Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYFW), today announced the hiring of Chuck Watts as Regional President for Arizona.

Mr. Watts’s hiring positions First Western Trust for further expansion in Arizona – helping clients lead their best lives for generations through local teams who deliver tailored financial solutions to meet each client’s unique private banking, commercial banking, wealth planning, trust and investment management needs.  

“We are very pleased to have Chuck join our team. His experience, along with our wealth management and private banking expertise, highly personalized service, and broad suite of products and services, offers tremendous value for clients in Arizona,” said Scott Wylie, chairman and CEO of First Western Trust. “Mr. Watts comes to us with over 35 years of wealth management and banking experience, most recently developing and leading teams as regional head of Wells Fargo's Private Banking team in Arizona and several nearby states. His experience and ties to the Scottsdale and Phoenix community over the last 20 years will serve him well as we continue to expand to serve clients in this area. Arizona has similar demographics to our most successful markets and I believe offers the potential to be as significant for us as our Colorado markets in the coming years. We look forward to Chuck strengthening our presence in Arizona and demonstrating how our unique approach and proven process makes us the best private bank for the Western wealth management client for generations.”

Chuck Watts has called the Phoenix and Scottsdale area home since 2000. Chuck’s background includes the University of Arkansas, IESE Universidad de Navarra’s Executive Management Program, and Executive Leadership training program in Madrid while working at BBVA. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has held FINRA licenses in General Securities, General Securities Principal, Options Securities Principal, and Municipal Securities Principal. Over the last 35 years, his experience includes portfolio and wealth management leadership roles with Merrill Lynch, Boatman’s Trust Co. (now Bank of America), Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and BBVA. In the past 20 years, Chuck has established deep ties to the local community through his support of community, civic, art and charitable organizations, and through board positions including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix. Chuck is currently a member of the CFA Society of Phoenix and the CFA Institute.

For more information, please contact Chuck Watts at 480-596-1802 or Chuck.Watts@myfw.com.

About First Western Financial, Inc.

First Western Financial, Inc., a financial services holding company, and its wholly owned subsidiary, First Western Trust, are headquartered in Denver, Colorado. First Western Trust maintains operations in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and California. Based on a mission to be the best private bank for the western wealth management client, First Western Trust provides a fully integrated suite of wealth management services on a private trust bank platform, which includes a comprehensive selection of deposit, loan, trust, wealth planning and investment management products and services. First Western Financial, Inc.’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “MYFW.”

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this news release regarding our expectations and beliefs about our future financial performance and financial condition, as well as trends in our business and markets are “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements often include words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” “project,” “outlook,” or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “opportunity,” “could,” or “may.” The forward-looking statements in this news release are based on current information and on assumptions that we make about future events and circumstances that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict and beyond our control. As a result of those risks and uncertainties, our actual financial results in the future could differ, possibly materially, from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release and could cause us to make changes to our future plans. Those risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects; integration risks in connection with acquisitions; the risk of geographic concentration in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and California; the risk of changes in the economy affecting real estate values and liquidity; the risk in our ability to continue to originate residential real estate loans and sell such loans; risks specific to commercial loans and borrowers; the risk of claims and litigation pertaining to our fiduciary responsibilities; the risk of competition for investment managers and professionals; the risk of fluctuation in the value of our investment securities; the risk of changes in interest rates; and the risk of the adequacy of our allowance for loan losses and the risk in our ability to maintain a strong core deposit base or other low-cost funding sources. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties to which our business and future financial performance are subject is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 12, 2021 (“Form 10-K”), and other documents we file with the SEC from time to time. We urge readers of this news release to review the “Risk Factors” section our Form 10-K and any updates to those risk factors set forth in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and our other filings with the SEC. Also, our actual financial results in the future may differ from those currently expected due to additional risks and uncertainties of which we are not currently aware or which we do not currently view as, but in the future may become, material to our business or operating results. Due to these and other possible uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, which speak only as of today’s date, or to make predictions based solely on historical financial performance. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

*First Western Trust Bank is an Equal Housing Lender, and is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Media Contact:

Theodore Gerbick
theodore.gerbick@myfw.com  
303.531.8120