2008 40 Under 40 Honoree: Shelly Titus

Her father started with Wal-Mart when it was a chain of 15 stores and had a long career with the company, so Titus followed suit.

After graduating from Missouri State University, she worked in management within Wal-Mart’s Supercenter division. Her husband worked for Wal-Mart, too, and the couple moved to Amarillo, Texas, each working at a different store. She then worked briefly in health care.

Titus caught the banking bug when a friend contacted her about a job that would be a perfect fit for her human resources experience.

It turned out to be the right career move. After 13 years in the industry, Titus is senior vice president and retail market manager at Empire Bank.

“I am responsible for managing a 14-location branch network and ensuring that our branch staff work to achieve our sales and service goals,” Titus says. “We accomplish our vision through leadership at all levels, of which I am responsible for setting the example.”

She encourages everyone to be on the lookout for potential employees with the right attitude that will translate into top-notch customer service.

“I consider recruiting everyone’s job, not just human resources,” she says. “We can train people to be bankers, but it’s harder to train customer service and sales skills.”

Titus was hired at Empire Bank to define its retail banking sales and service expectations and to train staff to understand those expectations as they work to serve customers with their financial goals.

“Within six months of implementing our new sales and service strategy, we moved from the bottom of our peer group in our holding company … in regards to goal achievement, to the top-ranking position,” Titus adds.

Future goals include building on the success that’s led Empire to the third spot for retail deposit market share among all banks in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area in mid-2007, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.

Titus completed Leadership Springfield last year and enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at leaders and the community. She also gets involved with various nonprofits, both professionally and personally, including United Way of the Ozarks, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Cancer Society and Children’s Miracle Network.

Double Play

Birth date: Feb. 9, 1970

Family: I have been married almost 15 years to Jay Titus, who is a commercial banker in Springfield. While we don’t have children of our own by choice, we have 17 nieces and nephews to enjoy. Our parents and other family all live close to this area, and we are thankful for that.

Philosophy to live/work by: Learn from your mistakes, be the best you can be every day, and lead by example. At Empire Bank, I have been blessed to work with many good people who also share this same type of work/life ethic.

In a fantasy world, which professional sport would you play? I admire baseball players, for several reasons. It obviously takes great skill to be able to hit a ball at high speeds, and practice and perseverance are necessary to gain excellence in the game. You also have to be able to multitask.

Information accurate at the time of the honor.[[In-content Ad]]