Please tell us a bit about what you do at FBBS. Every day is a little different, and that’s one of the things I enjoy most. At a high level, I’m responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company, but because we’re still relatively small, I get involved in just about everything. That includes sales, trading, compliance, personnel, customer relationships and evaluating new technology. We oversee an investment portfolio accounting platform for a large number of institutions, so we’re constantly reviewing our data, improving our platforms and making sure we’re providing the best tools possible for our clients. I also spend a lot of time traveling to banking associations and visiting customers. Since we’re owned by multiple bankers’ banks, I’m on the road quite a bit. And if one of our traders is out, I still get to jump back into trading bonds, which is honestly still my favorite part of the job. People ask what a typical day looks like, and the answer is that there really isn’t one. If something needs attention, whether it’s strategy, operations or helping a client solve a problem, I’m involved. What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far? Without question, it’s seeing other people succeed. Whether it’s someone here at FBBS that we’ve hired and helped develop or someone at one of the community banks we work with, watching people grow professionally is incredibly rewarding. I used to teach at banking schools, and now I’ll run into people who started as first-year students, and they’re leading departments or running banks today. Seeing that progression is really satisfying. As CEO, there’s another aspect that has become meaningful to me that I probably didn’t fully appreciate before. We have more than 30 employees here, and I am ultimately responsible for them — their mortgages, their kids’ college tuition, their families — and I don’t take that lightly. Until you sit in this chair, you don’t fully understand what it means to have that many people depending on you. You don’t want to let them down. Being able to provide opportunities for people and watch them build successful careers has easily been the most rewarding part of my job. How has FBBS changed since you started working there in 2004? When I started, we were independently owned by a handful of partners. That changed when the company became part of the bankers’ bank ownership group, and that’s probably been the biggest corporate change we’ve experienced. Beyond that, the business itself has evolved dramatically. Twenty years ago, fixed-income brokerage was much more straightforward. Banks bought bonds, sold bonds and that was largely the conversation. Today, if you’re going to compete, you have to bring a complete toolbox. Community banks expect much more from their partners. Along with brokerage services, they need bond accounting, asset/liability management tools, interest rate risk modeling, scenario analysis, balance sheet strategies and sophisticated analytics. They want to know not only what’s happening today, but what could happen tomorrow under multiple scenarios. Technology has become just as important as relationships. Relationships still open the door, but the data, software and analytics have to back it up. Ultimately, our success depends on the success of the banks we serve. If they’re not successful, we’re not successful. That mindset has pushed us to continue expanding our capabilities and finding new ways to help banks compete. What sets FBBS apart from competitors? It starts with who owns us. We’re owned by bankers’ banks, and those bankers’ banks are owned by community banks. That creates a completely different perspective than most firms in our industry. The people serving on our board are presidents of bankers’ banks and leaders of community banks. Everything we do ultimately flows back to helping community banks succeed. I also think our size works to our advantage. We’re large enough to provide the same sophisticated services offered by much bigger firms, but we’re still small enough to be incredibly responsive. If a customer needs something, we’ll jump on a plane, hop on a call or build a solution if one doesn’t already exist. We’re not interested in telling customers why something can’t be done. We’d rather figure out how to make it happen. If one bank needs a new tool, chances are another bank will benefit from it too. That’s how many of our solutions have been developed over the years. The Show-Me Banker Magazine | 9
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