How the Best-Known Bankers in Town Stay Connected

April 29, 2013 3:05 PM

Which bankers are boldface names in your city? You know the type: chairs the local Chamber of Commerce, raises big money for cultural institutions, knows everyone down at the country club and can greet a room full of customers by name. Of course having a sizeable donations budget can help buy connections, but maintaining a high level of community engagement and balancing it all with a day job at a bank comes down to skill.

We've profiled six bankers who raise this aspect of their work to an art form. They are from different institutions in different parts of the country, and each has a different story. One is a third-generation banker who has known many of her community's leaders since childhood. Another is an immigrant who began in banking as a teller, and whose commitment to volunteerism flourished along with his career. Some balance their activities with quiet alone time; others are social butterflies to the core. They are business leaders, civic boosters and ambassadors for their institutions. Here are the stories of how they became the best-known bankers in town.

ELAINE AGATHER
JPMorgan Chase
Chairman and CEO, Dallas Region
CURRENT BOARD MEMBER: AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Museum of Art, Klyde Warren Park, National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Performing Arts Fort Worth
OTHER AFFILIATIONS: Fort Worth Stock Show executive director, Bass Performance Hall fundraiser
EDUCATION: B.A., University of Oklahoma; MBA, University of Texas at Austin
FIRST JOB IN BANKING: Chemical Bank in New York

Sometimes you can see how involved Elaine Agather is in her community just by looking at her.

Go to the Fort Worth Stock Show, and you'll easily spot the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase's Dallas region in her elaborate Western regalia. She is one of the event's executive directors and, for two decades, she has been galloping into the arena on horseback as part of the "Grand Entry" that kicks off each rodeo.

It's no small commitment, given that there are 32 rodeos over the course of the three-week stock show every year. And it's no surprise to her private banking clients when the hectic schedule has Agather showing up for meetings in her rodeo attire for several weeks every January. By now, her transformation into a banking Dale Evans is familiar to all.

"I'm a former cheerleader," says Agather, who sees a similarity in her current extracurricular activities.

"It is important to be out there cheering for the community, showing that you care-genuinely. If you don't do that, your banking reputation won't really hold up," she says.

Agather's unalloyed community boosterism extends to other prominent Fort Worth cultural institutions, such as its National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame and the Bass Performance Hall. Her activities in nearby Dallas range from heavy involvement in the development of the AT&T Performing Arts Center to being on the board of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Such dedication has earned Agather kudos from civic and business leaders in both cities.

Ed Bass, a prominent Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist, is one of several to say he is particularly impressed with Agather's ability to straddle the cultural divide between Dallas and Fort Worth. The two cities have a rivalry that is deeply steeped in Texas historyDallas, as a railroad hub, always has been more of an urban center, while Fort Worth, as the traditional crossroads for cattle trails, always has identified more strongly with its Western heritageyet both welcome Agather as one of their own. "Elaine truly has a foot in each city and pulls it off in a way that is not easy to do," says Bass.

Ross Perot Jr., chairman of the Dallas real estate development company Hillwood, says you can't attend a major event in either city without seeing Agather.

"What's great about Elaine," says Perot, "is that if you are with her in Fort Worth, you think she is from Fort Worth, and then when she comes over to Dallas, you think she's from Dallas."

Agather is so ubiquitous that even many who don't know her personally know of her. She has enough status as a local celebrity that when Texas Christian University engaged her for its lecture series, it put up a billboard on the main highway between Dallas and Fort Worth emblazoned with her picture.

Bass says Agather is special partly because of her sensitivity to the traditions of the community, as illustrated by how she gets into the spirit of the 116-year-old stock show. "She not only engages on the business side of the stock show, but also finds the time to ride in the Grand Entry ceremony. And she does it in some of the most spectacular outfits of anyone, never wearing the same outfit twice," he says.

Each outfit is in a bold colorsuch as her ever-popular pink, a nod to her ongoing breast cancer awareness effortsand the blouses are decorated with sequins. She completes the look with leather or suede chaps over matching boots and, naturally, a classic cowboy hat.

Agather says that she enthusiastically dresses the part, as she is well aware of how tough it is to pass evaluation with the Forth Worth faithful. "Take the hat for instance," says Agather. "It must be a very traditional one. People will all but cringe if the hat isn't creased just right, or if it's flat. The right hat is really key."

Agather's high profile in the community often plays a direct role in her business success, as the personal connections she develops working on volunteer projects engenders the trust that make people comfortable sending referrals her way.

As for where she gets the drive that fuels her supercharged activist life, Agather points to her Sherman, Texas, roots.

"I have that good ole' Sherman work ethic in me," she says.

"I'm as competitive as any person and I take my job very seriously. But I don't take myself too seriously, which ultimately allows more people in the community to have more fun around me as we get things done."

 Andrew Marton

Image: Dan Sellers

HASSAN SALEM
U.S. Bancorp

President, Colorado Market
AGE: 44
YEARS IN ROLE: 6
FROM: Dubai
EDUCATION: University of Arizona, business degree
FIRST BANKING JOB: Teller
FIRST U.S. VOLUNTEER ROLE: Boys & Girls Club soccer coach
TIP: "You can say no when you can't serve and can't do justice to the cause."

Ask three Denver locals to name the best-known banker in town, and chances are you'll get at least three different answers. That's how active a bunch the bankers here are.

But even bankers in the Mile High City say they are awed by the sheer ubiquitousness of Hassan Salem, president of the Colorado market for the $353 billion-asset U.S. Bancorp.

"Either the guy is really active or there are actually three Hassan Salems running around town," says John Ikard, president and CEO of FirstBank, which is based a few miles outside Denver in Lakewood, Colo.

Salem spent the past year chairing the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the leadership council of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver and on the board of National Jewish Health. When he and his wife, Sheila, co-chaired the Colorado Symphony Ball a few years ago, the local press credited them with helping to rejuvenate what had been a flagging annual fundraiser.

Salem's devotion to volunteering started 8,000 miles away in his hometown of Dubai, where his father ingrained in him and his four siblings the importance of helping others. Stateside, Salem's first volunteer role was with a Boys & Girls Club coaching soccer while he was earning his business degree at the University of Arizona.

He moved to Denver in the early 1990s, because his wife got a job there. Salem wound up getting hired as a teller at Colorado National Bank, a predecessor of U.S. Bancorp, and over the next two decades he moved up the ranks, ascending to the bank's top position in the state in 2007.

U.S. Bancorp is the third-largest deposit holder in Colorado, just barely edged out of second place by FirstBank. (Wells Fargo is No. 1 by market share.)

Ikard says that despite their rivalry, Denver's banking leadersa group that also includes Bruce Alexander, president and CEO of Vectra Bank, and Bob Malone, the chairman and CEO of Steele Street Bank & Trustrely on each other to buy tables for black-tie events, to avoid having to hit up customers. "Hassan is one of my go-to guys," Ikard says. "He's exceptionally generous with his time ... and he's a natural leader."

Salem, whose local community involvement started with Rotary Club meetings not long after he arrived in town, cautions young bankers not to focus too much on networking when they join an organization. Instead he advises that they choose causes they genuinely care about. "Then it tends to be more fulfilling and something that you will excel in," he says.

Salem says one of his recent successes was helping National Jewish, a respiratory hospital, raise $2 million last year as a grand marshal at its annual gala.

Based on his list of volunteer activities, it's hard to believe that Salem, a father of two, ever says "no" to an organization. But he does.

"You say no when you know you can't serve and can't do justice to the cause," says Salem. Though in those cases, he looks for someone at his company who might be able to help where he can't.

As Salem pondered taking the role of chairman at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commercea one-year stint that concluded this past Septemberhis careful consideration of whether he could make the time commitment is something CEO Kelly Brough found striking.

"When he said 'yes,'" Brough recalls, "he was all in."

Robert Barba

CONNIE BOND STUART
PNC Bank
Regional president, Central and southern Indiana
YEARS WITH PNC: 33
FIRST JOB THERE: Corporate banking relationship manager
YEARS IN CURRENT ROLE: 2
CURRENT BOARD SERVICE: Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, Central Indiana Corporate partnership, United Way Central Indiana Early Childhood Business Council (co-chair)
HONORS: 2009 Muriel Gilman award from the 21st Century Fund for Delaware's Children; 2009 Citizen of the Year award from the Boy Scouts of America, Del-Mar-Va Council; 2011 order of the First state, given by Delaware's governor

As Delaware president for PNC Bank, Connie Bond Stuart had a fan in the governor's mansion, a seat on the Delaware Business Roundtable and a big role at the local United Way.

But two years ago she relocated to the Midwest, to serve as PNC's regional president in Indianapolis, which meant transporting all of her relationship-building skills to a new market.

Stuart says that one of her first tasks upon arriving in Indiana was to quiz her predecessor, as well as her new colleagues and local leaders, about where her efforts outside the office would be most impactful. Then she sat down with the heads of each organization on her list to get a clearer understanding of their role within the community, particularly related to education issues. Early childhood education is a major cause for PNC, which in 2004 launched a $350 million initiative to fund preschool programs and to develop educational materials for underserved children.

Before Stuart gets herself or PNC involved with any issue, she consults with colleagues and customers to get comfortable that the bank would have a credible voice on the matter. She also makes sure that she can justify the commitment.

"I must know my primary focus, the business, is running well before I can do things like testify at the statehouse on behalf of early childhood education," she says.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell says he knew he could count on Stuart when he asked her in 2009 to join his lieutenant governor in co-chairing a public-private commission that developed a plan to make high-quality preschools more accessible to at-risk children.

"Connie had an incredible way of getting everyone to the table, to check their egos at the door to make sure people were focused," says Markell, who recognized Stuart in 2011 with the Order of the First State, Delaware's highest civilian honor.

Stuart is motivated to make a similar impact in Indianapolisnot only because she enjoys the community work but because clients expect it. In a recent request for proposals to handle treasury management for a major commercial outfit, Stuart says, "one of their criteria was whether we were committed to helping strengthen the community." (PNC won the business, she says.)

In Indiana, Stuart didn't have to establish her reputation entirely from scratch. Though she has worked outside the state for most of her career, she is an Indiana native and a graduate of the business school at Indiana University. When she returned to Indiana in June 2011, she got help from folks like the president of the United Way in Delaware, who alerted his counterpart at the Central Indiana chapter that Stuart would be a valuable contact in the local business community.

Stuart says she is careful not to spread herself too thin. She only serves on boards for which she feels well suited, and encourages co-workers to serve on other boards, which offers a career development opportunity for colleagues as well as a benefit to the community.

"I don't want to be the only face from PNC," she says. "We can be much more impactful if we have multiple people representing PNC across organizations."

PNC encourages all of its employees to spend up to 40 hours of paid time off volunteering with early childhood education initiatives. Stuart admits it's hard to quantify the company's return on that investment. "But you see it in the pride [employees] take in having made an impact on a center that's helping underserved, disadvantaged children. It's hard to put a dollar value on that," she says.

"Also, this is changing people's lives, and how do you measure that?"

Katie Kuehner-Hebert

DOUG ROTH
BB&T
SVP, Area Executive
AGE: 52
EDUCATION: B.A. & MBA, Rollins College; Stonier Graduate School of Banking, University of Delaware; UNC-Chapel Hill, Advanced Management Program
COLLEGE SPORT: Varsity baseball
CURRENT BOARD MEMBER: Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce (chairman), Greater Richmond Partnership, United Way of Greater Richmond, Capital Region Collaborative Council, Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation

Doug Roth says his nature is that of a stereotypical banker-staid, introverted and analytical. But his calendar of extracurricular activities would seem to say otherwise.

As a BB&T Corp. senior vice president and area executive for commercial banking in Richmond, Va., Roth is a major presence on the local scene, chairing the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce and attending as many as two or three black-tie fundraisers a month. Several years ago, committing fully to the rock-and-roll theme of a Chamber membership drive he was leading, he went to progress report meetings dressed as Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and even Madonna.

If Roth is able to let his hair down around others, it's because he still allows himself time to retreat inward when he needs to recharge his batteriesand also because he is so determined about what he wants to accomplish.

"There's nothing worse than spending your time at a meeting and accomplishing nothing," Roth says. "As an introvert, I make sure I prepare. I'm not one of those who wing it."

Roth, who moved to Richmond for BB&T in 1999, says he started volunteering as a way to develop leadership skills and to bring in business. His advice to others looking to broaden their community involvement is to spend about six months just attending meetings of various organizations, to determine whether there's a good fit.

"Pick something that you love and are passionate about," he says. "People will see right through you if you are doing it just to have something on your resume."

Roth, who started with organizations like the Kiwanis Club, United Way and Junior Achievement, says he generally is drawn to organizations involved in either business development or sports. But he wasn't always as focused. Roth once joined an orchestra committee in a city where he used to live, but he soon realized that he lacked enthusiasm for the music and didn't enjoy the experience.

"It's ok to make a mistakeit happens," he says. "Just acknowledge it and find something different."

Roth says he typically gets involved with organizations at the committee level, works his way into a leadership role and eventually moves on to a different organization.

"From a sales or business development point of view, it's a networking tool. If you do that year after year, your network expands," he says.

Roth is one half of a Virginia power couple. (His wife, Carrie Roth, is the state's deputy secretary of commerce and trade.) They often, but not always, get to attend events together.

Roth says his weekly time commitment to community organizations is dependent on the position. As chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, he is putting in as many as 12 hours a week. Other positions require less than half that, he says.

Once a year, he evaluates his schedule closely and decides which projects to do next.

Kim Scheeler, the president of the Greater Richmond Chamber, says Roth's greatest asset as a volunteer is that he'll do any job that benefits the organization. "He doesn't volunteer to get his name on some board. He has the best interest of the organization at heart," Scheeler says. "He's not driven by ego."

That was evidenced by the Dorothy costume Roth once wore to an employee recognition meeting for BB&T bankers (and again the next day at a retirement luncheon). The athletic-looking Roth cut a striking figure dressed as the "Wizard of Oz" heroine, with a blue-checkered smock, a dark wig with pigtails and a pair of men's loafers coated in red glitter.

"Don't be afraid to get in there, roll up your sleeves and get some work done," Roth says. "And try and make it fun."

Carol Wolf