By Trey Maust, an EO Portland member and CEO of Lewis and Clark Bank.

It was October 2005, and I had just resigned from my position as CFO of a US$250 million bank. I wanted to devote full-time efforts to form a new commercial bank headquartered in the Portland, Oregon, USA, metropolitan area. Times were good. As co-founder and the largest beneficial shareholder, little did I expect when we opened our doors on 15 December 2006 that the country was heading straight toward one of the worst environments this industry has seen in any of our lifetimes.