| Julia Suryapranata Gouw | |
| Birth Place: | Surabaya, Indonesia |
| Spouse: | Ken Keng-Hok Gouw |
| Nationality: | Indonesian |
| Occupation: | Former President, Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of East West Bancorp, Inc. and East West Bank, Community Leader, Philanthropist |
| Alma Mater: | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
Julia Suryapranata Gouw is former president, chief operating officer[1] [2] and a member of the board of directors of East West Bancorp, Inc. and East West Bank. Gouw originally joined East West Bank in 1989 as controller and became executive vice president and chief financial officer from 1994 to 2008. Under Gouw's leadership, East West achieved 11 consecutive years of record earnings.
Gouw is a member of the board of the board of director of Pacific Life.
Gouw is a certified public accountant and a member of The Trusteeship, an affiliate of the International Women's Forum, an organization of preeminent women of achievement and influence in diverse professional fields.
Julia was born in Surabaya, Indonesia. Her father was originally from Bali, and her mother was from Banjarmasin. Gouw spend 18 years of her life in Surabaya with her family. Gouw graduated from SMA Santa Maria Surabaya, and soon after she graduated high school she moved to the United States in 1978 where she earned a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.She Married Ken Keng-Hok Gouw, June 1, 1981.
KPMG
Gouw served as Senior Audit Manager at KPMG where she managed a team of accountants that performed the financial and regulatory audits of financial institutions, real estate firms, and construction companies.
East West Bank
Gouw first joined East West Bank in 1989 as controller. Shortly thereafter, Gouw was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer. She held this position until 2008, after which she became chief risk officer. Julia served as vice chairman of the board of directors through 2008 and was then appointed president and chief operating officer in 2009. She currently holds this position.
Gouw has been ranked among the "25 Most Powerful Women in Banking" five times by American Banker Magazine [3] [4] and has twice received the Los Angeles Business Journal's "Women Making a Difference" award. She has also been recognized in Los Angeles Business Journal's "L.A.'s Top Women in Finance". Gouw has been named Philanthropist of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners in Los Angeles. She has also been featured in the book Women Leaders at Work – Untold Tales of Women Achieving Their Ambitions[5] alongside a select group of women founders and CEOs.
Corporate board activity
Nonprofit board and committee activity
Awards and recognitions
Gouw served on the board of visitors of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where she established an endowed chair for mood disorders research. She also served on the board of directors of The UCLA Foundation and is the founding chair of the executive women's advisory board for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women's Health Center.