Who We Are
- The Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington (EFACW) was created by the Washington State legislature in 1983 to provide export finance counseling assistance to small- and medium-sized exporters or prospective Washington-based exporters.
- EFACW is funded mainly by the State of Washington and is an independent contractor to the Washington State Department of Community Trade and Economic Development (CTED). EFACW is currently co-located with the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development in The Westin Building at 2001 6th Avenue, Suite 2600 Seattle, Washington 98121.
- EFACW works closely with both Federal partners including the U.S. Exim Bank (www.exim.gov), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation or OPIC (www.opic.gov), and the U.S. Department of Commerce (www.export.gov) as well as the Washington State Department of Community, Trade & Economic Development or CTED (www.cted.wa.gov).
About Tim Schipke
Tim Schipke joined the Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington as President and CEO in April 2008. Tim has a wide range of international experience, beginning with his time in the U.S. Navy, where, as an Intelligence Officer, he was stationed in Spain and participated in Operation Desert Storm on the USS Eisenhower and as an Intelligence Analyst. He was also the Intelligence Division Officer for the USS Theodore Roosevelt based in Norfolk, Virginia.
He began his banking career in 1993 at First Union in Charlotte, completing a year-long corporate banking training program and joining the International Division as a credit analyst for their International Financial Institutions Group. He joined Wachovia Bank in 1997, as a Relationship Manager for International Financial Institutions in Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, traveling extensively in those regions during his tenure at Wachovia. Tim was in Turkey in 1999 during a particularly tragic earthquake—and also participated in the bank's Euro transition project in 1999.
Tim joined E*Trade in January 2000 and gained a valuable corporate perspective as a Lead Treasury Analyst for E*TRADE, where he handled the online brokerage firm's foreign exchange, hedging and international cash management needs.
In 2001, Tim became an International Sales Specialist for AmSouth Bank (now Regions Bank) in Birmingham, Alabama. Tim was responsible for the marketing and consultative sales of foreign exchange and trade finance products and services to middle market and corporate clients throughout Alabama.
Tim moved to Seattle in early 2006 to accept a position with KeyBank as a Senior International Sales Specialist covering the Western Region and calling on Large Corporate and Middle Market clients marketing and offering consultative trade finance products services to importers and exporters.
Tim was born in Decatur, IL, and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with Honors in German Language and German Studies. He also studied for a year at the Phillips Universität in Marburg, Germany. He holds a certification as a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) from the Association of Financial Professionals, which he received in 2003.