Newcomers climb bank ranks

Mark McFatridge started July 28 in his new role as president and chief operating officer of OakStar Bank, a community bank organized by local investors in 2005. McFatridge was the area executive for Alabama-based Regions Bank’s Central/Southern Missouri Group, which comprises 50 branches in Missouri and western Kentucky. He submitted his resignation July 1, and his last day was July 16.

McFatridge moved to Springfield for the job in September 2006 after nearly five years with Regions in Indianapolis, his native city. But during a recent assessment of his advancement options within Regions -– executive positions in St. Louis and Indianapolis – McFatridge realized he wanted to stay in the Ozarks.

“We have fallen in love with southwest Missouri,” he said. “The quality of life is fantastic.”

McFatridge recalled a conversation he’d had earlier this year with John Lambert, president of Missouri Insulation & Supply Inc. in Ozark. Lambert, an OakStar investor and a member of the bank’s board of directors, liked what he saw in McFatridge, and he let the Regions executive know the door was open.

“I saw him as a go-getter,” Lambert said. “He’s only been here 20 months, and he’s already – in my opinion – a known entity in Springfield. … He’s really networked himself in the community like somebody that’s been born and raised (here).”

Jamie Esch is another out-of-towner who has made strides in the local banking community since arriving in Springfield from Amarillo, Texas, about 10 months ago. Esch was named the Springfield market president at Bank of America on July 30. The position had been vacant since April 1, when Michael Homeyer joined U.S. Bank as senior vice president of the bank’s media and communications group.

As market president, Esch will be in charge of the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank’s community involvement and philanthropic giving efforts in the Springfield area, and he will continue in his role as consumer market executive, overseeing 35 banking centers in southwest Missouri, northern Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas.

Finding the right fit

McFatridge’s task was clear when he arrived in Springfield: Help redefine Regions’ role in the community.

To that end, he organized five meetings in Springfield and Branson to reintroduce business and community leaders to Regions, the eighth-largest bank in the country but with only 1.29 percent of the local metropolitan statistical area deposit market share. He described the approach as “hand-to-hand combat in marketing.”

McFatridge – an inaugural member of Springfield Business Journal’s 12 People You Need to Know breakfast series – said he’s proud of what he accomplished at Regions in less than two years, and he spoke graciously of his former employer and co-workers.

“Regions still has the capacity to be the best bank in southwest Missouri, if they maintain their focus and if they continue to do the right things,” he said “I’d like to think the team that we put together was a big part of that.”

But a desire to stay in Springfield and tackle a new set of challenges led McFatridge to OakStar, where he’ll focus heavily on business development as the new public face of the growing community bank, which now has nearly $100 million in assets and an $80 million loan portfolio.

“This is a niche play,” McFatridge said of OakStar’s mission. “There will never be a chance that (OakStar) be the No. 1 market share. What we’re going to focus on is to be a commercial bank and go out and find commercial business. … That vision is the one that’s going to carry us for a long, long time.”

In other words, OakStar won’t compete head-to-head with Bank of America, which Esch said has built its reputation through a range of services from local business lending to retirement planning to home mortgage loans.

“We’re one of the only national banks in the area,” Esch said. “Most other banks we compete with here in Springfield are regional and independent banks. I think that gives (Bank of America) a competitive advantage … because we have the convenience that other banks can’t necessarily provide.”

On the charitable side, Bank of America’s local foundation will continue to make grants available to various nonprofit and civic organizations, Esch said. The bank’s local funding priorities are community development/neighborhood revitalization, financial education and family support services, he added.

Getting settled in

Of the two new bank presidents, McFatridge has more of a learning curve. Esch has been working with his Bank of America colleagues since October.

McFatridge, however, is living up to his reputation as a quick study, said OakStar CEO Jim Bracht.

“Mark is one of these individuals who jumped right on board, and – beginning the first day – started one-on-one meetings with every associate in the bank,” Bracht said. “That gives him a tremendous insight and tremendous rapport with each of the associates.”

With the addition of McFatridge, Bracht has taken on the chief lending responsibilities for OakStar. Bracht said the bank would eventually hire a full-time chief lending officer, but he expects the process to unfold much in the way it did with McFatridge.

“I think it was very important for OakStar to have someone who could take the reins from me and become that No. 2 person moving into the senior manager position at some point,” Bracht said. “Were we actively looking? No. Was I always keeping my eye out for that right individual? Yes.”

As McFatridge continues to familiarize himself with OakStar, it’s unknown whether his former employer is actively searching for a new area executive. Regions spokeswoman Shannon Rust declined to comment on McFatridge’s departure or the bank’s hiring strategy.[[In-content Ad]]