Commerce Bank leader plans move after promotion

The local market leader for Kansas City-based Commerce Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq: CBSH) is preparing a move out of Springfield as he further transitions into a new role.

A longtime employee at the company, Doug Neff said he was promoted at the start of the year to director of community markets and senior vice president for Commerce Bancshares. He had served as the bank’s southwest region chair and CEO since 2013.

“Due to that promotion, I need to relocate my primary office to St. Louis,” he said, noting he’s responsible for his former duties in addition to overseeing community markets in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. “We have a really well-established leadership team that really gives me the flexibility.”

Noting he expects a fourth-quarter relocation, Neff pointed to local leadership on the ground in Keith Noble, Commerce Bank’s Springfield region president, and Brent Baldwin, executive vice president and commercial banking division manager.

“Those responsibilities for Brent and Keith still stay the same,” Neff said. “A lot of what was going on in the market already was being handled by (them). Really what it allows me to do is spend more time in some places where I haven’t been able to get to as often.”

Baldwin said the Springfield area remains a key market for Commerce Bank, as it was the first the company expanded to after starting in Kansas City. That expansion came in the 1960s, he noted.

“Springfield is a very important piece of the Commerce puzzle,” Baldwin said.

The most recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data rank Commerce Bank as No. 2 in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area for deposit market share. As of June 30, 2021, Commerce Bank held $1.6 billion in deposits, or 11% of the market share. That’s behind No. 1 Great Southern Bank, with nearly $2 billion in MSA deposits, or 13.5% of the market share.

Neff’s relocation to St. Louis additionally means he’ll reduce his civic load in the Springfield area. Noting he’s stepped off boards in recent years as his terms expired, he pointed to Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield Inc. as one organization he’s likely to remain involved with.

“Keith and Brent and the rest of the leadership team are very actively involved,” Neff said. “Physically, I’m going to be gone some. This community is still an important part of Doug, and I want to be an important part of it.”