Pub. 16 2019 Issue 2

2 O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G N E W M E X I C O R E A L I Z E D R E A M S You can be as involved in the community as you would like and you are in a position to truly make a difference. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE JASON WYATT NMBA PRESIDENT Q & A - Jason Wyatt 1. How did you get started in banking? I was introduced to banking at a very young age by my grandfather, Don Kidd, who was president, CEO and chairman of Western Com- merce Bank for over forty years. I can remem- ber running around the bank when I was very young looking for the sucker dishes. I also remember attending many parades and riding on the Western Commerce Bank float throw - ing candy to other kids. However, my first experience working for the bank came when I was fifteen years old. A good friend and I were hired by my grandfather to cut weeds out of livestock pins in a foreclosed feed lot operation for $4.25 per hour. We were able to completely fill a 32’ horse trailer eight times with weeds over our summer break. The lot was so large that by the time we finished, the original weeds that we cut had completely grown back. Needless to say, my first experience taught me what can go wrong in banking and to avoid making bad loans because you might end up cutting weeds out of a feed lot, both literally and figuratively. It also taught me that man - ual labor at $4.25 an hour was not the way I wanted to make a living. I still believe that my grandfather’s intentions in having me do that job were solely for me to learn those lessons the hard way because he could have easily paid to have the weeds sprayed and killed. Also, every time I brought it up he would get a big