The following is one of six profiles on bankers who've raised the act of community engagement to an art form. To see the others,
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
