Jose A. Infante’s defection from Community Shores Bank Corp. to a rival banking company has heated up competition in western Michigan.
Mr. Infante, who had been the $225 million-asset Muskegon company’s chairman, president, and chief executive, left June 1 to become the senior vice president for business development in the western Michigan division for the $3.4 billion-asset Independent Bank Corp. of Ionia.
His duties there will include building up Independent’s commercial loan portfolio and identifying locations for new branches in Muskegon County, where his former employer has the No. 4 market share.
Meanwhile, Community Shores, which Mr. Infante co-founded seven years ago, has growth plans of its own. It has not opened any branches since 2001, but Heather D. Brolick, its new president and CEO, said its research shows that customers want more. It plans to open one in the fall and has others on the drawing board.
“We have a very limited branch structure at this point,” said Ms. Brolick, who has been the president and CEO of its subsidiary bank since December 2003. “We’re looking to provide a good retail space in north Muskegon County and in the city of Grand Haven.”
Western Michigan is hardly viewed as a fast-growing region, but its economy is generally stronger than that of eastern Michigan, whose fortunes are tied largely to the battered automobile industry.
Independent Bank-West Michigan, one of Independent Bank Corp.’s four subsidiaries, opened its first Muskegon County branch in 2004, though it is mainly a loan production office. The bank is counting on Mr. Infante’s contacts in the county to help attract more commercial borrowers — and their deposits.
In an interview, Mr. Infante said his new company has not put a number on how many branches it wants in Muskegon County.
“We’re still looking at sites,” he said. “We’re going to be able to put enough branches here to take care of whatever … [Independent] needs.”
He would not give a reason for his departure from Community Shores, except to say he and its board had a difference of opinion about the company’s direction.
He also said he initiated discussions with Independent through the head of its mortgage department, a neighbor and golf partner.
Brian Martin, an analyst with Howe Barnes Investments Inc. in Chicago, said that under Mr. Infante, Community Shores had been successful in stealing market share from larger banks.
The effects of the departure remain to be seen, Mr. Martin said. “It was certainly a surprise. I don’t view it as a positive or negative until we see if Jose takes talent. If the team stays intact less one person, it shouldn’t impact the company too greatly.”
Tracey A. Welsh, Community Shores’ chief financial officer, said only one lender had followed Mr. Infante to Independent.
“We had one commercial lender — he felt really loyal to Jose, and he had only been a lender for a couple years,” she said. “We had conversations with all of our lenders, and all the more seasoned lenders have expressed no desire to leave.”
Ms. Brolick said Community Shores was prepared for life without Mr. Infante. “This is a normal succession plan move for us. Mr. Infante for the past several years has focused primarily on investor relations.”
