First Western Trust Appoints Chuck Watts as Regional President for Arizona

PHOENIX, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — First Western Trust Bank*, a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Western Financial, 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 , 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.”