Five Questions: Jerry Morgan

Last month, Jerry Morgan moved into the president and CEO position of the bank and holding company he helped get off the ground in 1997. Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield named Morgan president and CEO, succeeding Ben Morgan – no relation – who died of a heart attack in January 2012. An original bank investor who has served on the bank’s board of directors and executive committee, Jerry Morgan now leads the 42-employee bank, with $100 million in assets across three locations. Morgan, who also owns Regulatory Software Services Inc., already has brought on former Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield CEO Gloria Roling to work in a new Springfield mortgage office.

Bank Launch
“We started organizing in our original CEO’s basement. Sixteen years forward, and I have been on the board here about 10 years. Since Ben’s passing about a year-and-a-half ago, we had formed an executive committee, and I’ve been on that. It is really a subset of the board of directors, just making sure everything was staying on good grounds while we were searching for a new president and CEO.”

Search Party
“We had an interim president, Bill Holtmeyer, who had worked as a consultant for us for many years. Bill was an ex-Missouri bank examiner. After Ben died, everybody on the board was in shock, so the thinking was let’s get somebody in here who could keep the ship going on a straight path. He certainly did that. … At the first of this year, we went on a search for a new president. We got numerous resumes and had numerous interviews. When we were reviewing (those), the board started asking me about the job. After Ben passed, they asked me to be CEO, and I ended up leading the search for a new president. Basically, at the last board meeting, the board asked me if I would be interested in taking over the position permanently because of my history with the bank. I knew all of the employees very well, and I knew a lot of people in the community, so I thought it was probably a good fit.”

Morgan Squared
“Ben had been in the banking business since his college days, so (I knew him) since the early or mid-1970s. He started in Marshfield and worked for Citizens National Bank. … After graduate school, I went to work for the NCR Corp. – the old National Cash Register Corp. I was in the finance division and I sold bank automation computer systems. That’s when I actually met Ben, in around 1978 or ’79. I sold Citizens National Bank a computer system, and we forged a friendship. I worked on the vendor side in back-office automation. When Ben decided he wanted to start (Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield), he came to me as a potential investor.”

Technically Speaking
“I worked (at NCR) for about eight years, and then I worked for a company out of Spokane, Wash., called ISC Systems for about the same amount of time. They both sold automation to banks and savings and loans. … It was about 1990 (that I left). That company sold mostly automation systems to savings and loans. In about 1988 or 1990, savings and loans had a similar fate to banks in 2008. There were a lot of savings and loans failures. And I actually went out and started my own computer software company at that time. … It is called Regulatory Software Services. That was a completely different industry. We help utilities comply with (Environmental Protection Agency) regulations pertaining to (polychlorinated biphenyls) in transformers. My partner was a consultant in that industry, and I had a technical background, so we developed some software.”

Roling On
“We are fortunate enough to have an individual, David Lurvey, running our mortgage department. He’s a very technical person, and been in the (information technology) industry a long time. That mortgage business is kind of a numbers game. He’s been ratcheting up the number of people in that department and we’re getting a lot of business out of the Springfield area, so we decided to go down there. … I met (Gloria Roling) through a property association. We had investments in some property and were both on the board. And then, I met her through Rotary. She is very active in her Rotary Club. I knew what her personal situation was with her father, but she did want something to do, so I approached her about working for us under a more flexible schedule to match up with her personal life. We are very glad to have her.”