Leadership
Our leadership team brings decades of financial industry experience with expertise in their disciplines.
Matt Deines
President and CEO
Christopher Neros
Chief Banking Officer
Chris Riffle
Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel
David Edelstein
Chief Innovation Officer
Derek Brown
Chief HR Officer
Geri Bullard
Kyle Henderson
Chief Credit Officer
Our Board of Directors
Cindy Finnie, Board Chair
Cindy Hill-Finnie is Board Chair of First Fed. She was promoted in 2022 after serving for 10 years on the board. Hill-Finnie also is the President and Cofounder of Rainshadow Properties, Inc., a boutique hotel and property management company in Port Townsend. Hill-Finnie gained sales and financial services experience in her 38 years with Allstate. Her range of responsibilities included property and casualty underwriting, sales management, business development, agency management, financial management, and developing insurance agencies. Currently Hill-Finnie is serving as a Director for the First Fed Foundation, VP for the Fort Worden Foundation, Director of Fort Worden Hospitality, and member of the City of Port Townsend Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. Her past community leadership roles include Chair of the Centrum Foundation, Chair of the Washington State Arts Commission, Chair of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority, and Director of the Jefferson County Community Foundation.
Sherilyn Anderson, Vice Chair
Sherilyn Anderson is the Board Vice Chair of First Fed and a 2024 PSBJ Director of the Year. Anderson was most recently the CFO of glassybaby, a
Seattle-based producer and nationwide retailer of hand-blown glass
votives and glassware. The company is a pioneer in social venture
enterprise. During her 20-year investment banking career, Sherilyn led
over $6 billion of capital markets and over $1 billion of bank credit
transactions on behalf of governmental entities. As a Director at Wells
Fargo Securities, Sherilyn built the public finance investment banking
practice for the firm in the Northwest and parts of California. As a
Vice President and Director in public finance at UBS, Sherilyn created a
public finance investment banking practice in the West Coast
transportation sector, and grew it to be a market leader. A $1.2 billion
transaction led by Sherilyn for the Alameda Corridor (CA) included a
senior/subordinate debt structure and incorporated a first-ever loan
from the U.S. Department of Transportation (since codified as the TIFIA
loan program). As a Vice President in Private Wealth Management at
Goldman Sachs, Sherilyn provided strategic wealth planning, asset
allocation and implementation advice to ultra-high net worth clients.
She serves on the Executive Committee, and as the Treasurer and Chair of
the Finance Committee, of the Pacific Science Center, and as the
Treasurer of the Ethical Apparel Africa Foundation. Sherilyn holds an
MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.S. in industrial engineering
from Stanford University.
Dana Behar
Dana D. Behar has been the owner of Discovery Bay Investments,
LLC, Seattle, Washington, a private equity investment firm focusing on
agricultural land and real estate since September 2015. Prior to that,
he worked at HAL Real Estate Investments Inc., a private equity real
estate investment entity based in Seattle, Washington, for 23 years and
most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer from 2005
until September 2015. He recently served as director of HAL Real Estate
Investments Inc. from 2005 to 2016. Mr. Behar previously worked in brand
management at Procter & Gamble, served as Director of Marketing for
the retail chain, Egghead Software, and was a management consultant
with the Wharton Small Business Development Center. Mr. Behar has a
Bachelor of Arts in business with a concentration in finance from the
University of Washington and a Master of Business Administration with a
concentration in finance from the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Sean Brennan
Sean P. Brennan is a financial industry leader with over 35 years of experience. Previously he served as President and Chief Lending Officer of Puget Sound Bank, a financial institution that he cofounded in 2005 and which was acquired by Heritage Bank PNW in 2018. After the merger, he served as Senior Vice President, Regional Commercial Banking Director and then Corporate Banking Development Consultant for Heritage Bank NW. Prior to cofounding Puget Sound Bank, he held leadership roles at Washington Trust Bank and US Bancorp. Currently he serves on the boards of Plymouth Housing, one of the largest providers of permanent supportive housing in Seattle, and of Uwajimaya, a family-owned supermarket chain headquartered in the Seattle Chinatown-International District. His past board membership includes Aboda, Downtown Emergency Service Center, St. Joseph School Endowment, and advisory boards for Seattle University.
Craig Curtis
Craig A. Curtis is a registered architect and officer of
Katerra, Inc. Craig oversees the Building Design Division of the
company as President of Katerra Architecture, LLC. Katerra is a
multi-faceted real estate company founded by Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs to reinvent the way buildings are delivered, through
leveraging technology, supply chain and factory prefabrication. Prior
to joining Katerra, Mr. Curtis was employed by The Miller Hull
Partnership since 1987 and served as a partner from 1994 until 2016. In
2004, Miller Hull was awarded the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
National Firm Award, and in 2008, Mr. Curtis was elected to the AIA
College of Fellows, a distinction awarded to approximately 4% of its
members. Mr. Curtis has degrees in Architecture and Construction
Management from Washington State University and chairs the External
Advisory Board for the WSU Center for Environmental Research, Education
and Outreach (CEREO). A resident of Kitsap County for 26 years, Mr.
Curtis served on committees for the North Kitsap School District and
Suquamish Community Advisory Council.
Matt Deines
Matthew P. Deines was elected President and Chief Executive
Officer of First Federal Savings & Loan of Port Angeles on August 1,
2019. Mr. Deines has a robust background in financial services
management, with over two decades of industry experience. Previously,
Mr. Deines has held leadership roles such as Executive Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer at Liberty Bay Bank and, prior to this he
served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Sound
Community Bank.
Gabe Galanda
Gabriel S. Galanda is an Indigenous rights attorney and the
managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman. His practice focuses on complex
litigation and crisis management, representing Indigenous nations,
businesses, and citizens. Mr. Galanda has been named to Best Lawyers in
America in the fields of Native American Law and Gaming Law from 2007 to
2021. He has been dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers every year since
2013. As a recognized expert in his field, Mr. Galanda has provided
commentary for media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
The Guardian, and Le Monde. Additionally, Mr. Galanda is founder and
chairman of Huy, a non-profit organization which provides economic,
educational, rehabilitative, and religious support for Indigenous
prisoners in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the United States.
Indian Country Today honored him as one of “five people rocking the
world with their forward thinking, innovation and commitment to social
justice.” Mr. Galanda belongs to the Round Valley Indian Tribes of
California, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Tribes.
Lynn Terwoerds
Lynn Terwoerds has 24 years of technology leadership experience with a focus on cybersecurity strategy for Fortune Global 500 companies including Microsoft, Barclays PLC, and Oracle. Currently, she is CEO of Digital Resilience, a cybersecurity consulting firm she founded in 2018. Ms. Terwoerds is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and holds NACD Directorship Certification™. Additionally, she is Board President of the Northwest Maritime Center and on the Advisory Board of the Executive Women’s Forum. Ms. Terwoerds previously served on the Board of Directors for the National Women’s Sailing Foundation.
Norman Tonina
Norman J. Tonina, Jr. has served as the Chairman of the Fort
Worden Public Development Authority in Port Townsend, Washington since
2015. Mr. Tonina is also an adjunct faculty member in Seattle Pacific
University’s graduate program in Industrial and Organizational
Psychology. Mr. Tonina most recently worked at Grameen Foundation, a
non-governmental organization focused on enabling the poor to create a
world without poverty, where he served as an advisor to the Chief
Executive Officer and Board of Directors (2012-16) and as its Chief
Human Resources Officer (2010-12), focused on driving strategic
alignment, organizational effectiveness, and human resource
re-engineering initiatives. He began his career at Digital Equipment
Corporation in 1987 and joined Microsoft in 1993 as a finance manager
for its Systems products, rising to become Senior Director of Finance
for Microsoft’s Platforms and Applications business. In 1999, he
transitioned to Human Resources, where he directed major strategic
global HR initiatives, spending the majority of his time focused on
culture, leadership, and talent strategies. Mr. Tonina earned his
Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Northeastern
University, a certificate in human resources from the University of
Michigan, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from
Antioch University. Mr. Tonina continues to be actively involved in
community organizations in both Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington.