Business
Local Banker To Join GBAD Board
March 14, 2012 
The GUARDIAN has learned of the imminent appointment of Rob Perez, a local banker, to the Greater Boise Auditorium District Board. He will be confirmed at the Monday meeting to fill the vacancy created by the departure of former board member Mike Fitzgerald.
The following bio was provided by the District:
Rob Perez joined Idaho First National Bank as a management trainee in 1979 which began a 31 year career encompassing a variety of lending and credit management roles. After 13 years with the Bank’s corporate banking division, the last 7 years of which was spent as group manager, Rob left to start the bank’s first Commercial Real Estate Division.
By then Idaho First had changed its name to West One Bank and had sold to U.S. Bank of Portland. From 1996 until 2001 Rob served as Senior Vice President and Intermountain Division Manager for U.S. Bank, which encompassed production offices in Boise, Spokane, Reno, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and involved a loan portfolio in excess of $1 billion dollars.
In 2008 Rob left U.S. Bank to help found Western Capital Bank, an FDIC insured commercial bank focused on serving businesses and professionals. Today Rob serves as the President and CEO of Western Capital Bank and a Director of the Bank Holding Company, Western Capital Corporation. WCB is the only Boise-based bank with a 5-Star rating by two independent rating services.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Mar 14, 2012, 1:56 pm
Hope Mr. Perez is smart enough to know how bad an idea building a bigger convention center is for this community.
Mar 14, 2012, 8:51 pm
Come one-Come all…and watch the most pathetic hour. Kroc (what he is full of) STILL can’t run a meeting…and didn’t he say in his GBAD campaign he was NOT interested in any other political venture. How do you intend to build a convention center when you have no one to market the city and its amenities…but have 8 (so-called) sales people selling one (1) building…STOP THE INSANITY…pretty please. As far as Derr is concerned…hasn’t she done enough damage already? See you all at the Show!
Mar 15, 2012, 5:56 am
Shower down details on the auditorium district. Have they built an auditorium and what goes on there? Arena football, rock concerts? Is it worth a trip to attend an event at the auditorium?
Mar 15, 2012, 9:32 am
Parking, Parking, more parking please. Without it, nobody wants to go downtown and fight for parking.
Mar 15, 2012, 11:08 am
History, history, history. Not sure of the direction of this thread, but it is GBAD’s job to build auditoriums aka convention centers, in just the same way it is ACHD’s job to build roads. Don’t hear too much griping when ACHD widens the roads that you used to get delayed on.
In 1959 82% voted yes to create an Auditorium District as allowed under Idaho Law Title 67 Chapter 49 here:
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title67/T67CH49.htm
Proof of the landslide vote in 1959 linked below and I’m the one who went through the Library’s microfilm and presented this document to GBAD.
http://www.gbadnow.com/pdf/articles_1959.pdf
To reiterate: It is GBAD’s job, their mandate, to build a convention center. If they don’t get it done then they are failing, not the other way around.
EDITOR NOTE–Cynic, you are correct as to history. At the time there was no Century Link arena, Taco Bell arena, Morrison Center, Fair Grounds, Hawks Stadium, Bronco Stadium, Idaho Center, Center on the Grove, or Nampa Civic center. One of the justifications was a place for the Ice Capades or Holiday on Ice to perform. Times have changed.
Mar 15, 2012, 12:02 pm
Times have changed but their mission and function are just as relevant today as they were in 1959, if not more so.
Mar 15, 2012, 3:18 pm
Can’t think of the last time the Ice Capades came to the Convention Center. Or a concert. Or a play.
Mar 15, 2012, 3:59 pm
Conventions are shrinking world wide. The cost of fuel and growth of internet business transactions are trimming the convention business yearly. The convention/tradeshow business is a vestige of the last century.
I would support a new, beautiful and functioning fairgrounds, with multi use facilities. Garden City needs the economic boost more than Boise and they have the parking.
Building a Convention “centre” in downtown Boise is a very bad idea.
The area around Moscone Center in SF is filthy and dangerous and is in the heart of the city. Talk about a small business killer, building a WalMart in downtown Boise is almost as dumb.
The new fairgrounds in Redmond OR are a stellar example of what we could have if these clowns on GBAD had some vision.
EDITOR NOTE–Dog, take a look at a previous GUARDIAN suggestion. We think it has legs and would be worth “building upon.” A current GBAD commish was a county commish when we brought it up the first time.
Mar 16, 2012, 9:52 am
Conventions are shrinking world wide? Can you back up that assertion?
The Fairgrounds aka Expo Idaho is unacceptable. It is not near any freeway.
Building a convention center downtown is a bad idea? Did you ask Spokane for their opinion? Where have we heard this kind of talk before?
1970: The greenbelt was a bad idea. 1988: The Broadway/Chinden Connector was a bad idea. Et cetera, et cetera.
Ice Capades comment = straw man fallacy.