President and CEO
It was late 2020 and the town manager in Reading, Massachusetts, wanted to put together a rental assistance program for families hurt financially by COVID-19. He had only a few weeks to pull it off before the program’s federal funding would be revoked.
So he called Julieann Thurlow, president and chief executive of Reading Cooperative Bank. Since becoming leader of the $650 million-asset bank in 2006, Thurlow has earned a reputation for innovation and for coming to the aid of distressed communities.
“There was never any hesitation at all that we would ask Julie to help, and that she would drop everything to do so,” said Robert LeLacheur Jr., Reading’s town manager.
Reading Cooperative was handling a flood of Paycheck Protection Program loans, but Thurlow devised a plan for the rental assistance program. The bank designed a website to streamline the applications and worked with the town to publicize the available resources. Thurlow then led the team that underwrote the process and distributed funds to families.
A focus on community also influenced Thurlow’s approach to opening a branch in Lawrence, one of Massachusetts’ poorest cities.
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The pandemic delayed groundbreaking for the project, with the doors now expected to open in 2022. But rather than wait, Reading Cooperative set up a temporary office that allowed it to make loans through the Small Business Administration’s emergency lending program. It helped bring in new customers, many of whom were fluent only in Spanish and who had trouble accessing PPP loans elsewhere. Lawrence customers eventually accounted for 25% of Reading Cooperative’s PPP lending.
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Reading Cooperative is also a partner in the Mass FinTech Hub. The hub, which opened in summer 2021, gives local startups access to education, investors and other resources, and strives to cultivate digital talent locally. “We could all go to Finovate in New York or Money20/20 and listen to pitches, or we could find people doing good work closer to home,” Thurlow said.
