Village Bancshares founder Street retires

George Marino took over for founder James Street on March 3, almost a year to the date that Marino took a job as the first chief operating officer for Springfield Trust & Investment Co.

For Marino, the change was a homecoming. Before going into private business ownership about 20 years ago, Marino spent 20 years in banking with positions at Commerce, Empire and Boatmen’s banks. Marino also owns 30-year-old Greenlawn Fertilizer, though he no longer runs day-to-day operations.

“I was out of (banking) for a period of time, but it just gets in your blood,” Marino said. “Being back in banking, it feels natural.”

Marino said he looks forward to applying his banking knowledge to grow Village Bank, which operates under Springfield-based Village Bancshares Inc. Village Bank has more than $100 million in assets and five locations, four in Springfield and an Ozark branch that opened in January.

Village Bank is 12th in Springfield market share, claiming 1.71 percent of deposits in the city, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s most recent Deposit Market Share Report. The bank reported $91.3 million in deposits, as of June 30.

Marino and retiring president and CEO Street are both 64, but Marino said he has no immediate plans to retire. Street, who also served as the bank’s board chairman, could not be reached for comment.

Board member Ted Smith, retired president of DeWitt & Associates, is now interim chairman, Marino said. Smith also could not be reached for comment.

Marino doesn’t have growth plans in place, but he expects to develop a strategy within 90 days, he said.

“I come from both small-bank and large-bank operations,” Marino added. “This is a smaller bank, which we hope will be a larger bank in the very near future.”

Springfield Trust officials haven’t decided if they’re going to hire another COO, but a decision should come in the next 30 days, according to Chief Marketing Officer Troy Kennedy.

“The terms that (Marino) left on were wonderful,” Kennedy said. “He was one of our founding directors on our board, and we’ve had a great relationship with the whole Marino family for the last 17 years.”

Marino stepped down from the Springfield Trust Co. board at the end of 2007.

Springfield Trust Co. has more than 1,200 clients in 33 states and has more than $600 million in assets under management.