August 10, 2026 • 24 mins
Ryan Gorman talks to Rob Shaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank, on this episode of CEOs You Should Know. Shaw shares how he left a 26-year banking career to build Tampa Bay’s newest community bank from the ground up. He also discusses Echelon’s focus on local decision-making, personal relationships, and creating an employee-centered culture.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time now for our CEOs you should know feature here
on the Ryan Gorman Chill, and we're joined in studio
by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank. You can
learn more at Echelon dot bank. Rob thanks so much
for taking a few minutes to come in. Thanks, Ryan,
You're welcome. We have so much to talk about your
Tampa Bay's newest community bank, and that's just that you're
(00:22):
a bank that started completely from scratch.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
How does that work.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's not like you could just say, Alexa, build me
a new bank, exactly. There's a little bit more to
it than that. So how do you go about building
a bank from scratch? It takes about eighteen months the
Denovo startup process for a bank on average. There's a
lot of things to do. Obviously, the biggest barrier to
entry really is you need to make sure you get
(00:48):
regulatory approval. You've got to work very closely with the regulators,
the FDI S we're a state charter bank, so the
OFR out of Tallahassee, and you know, you just need
to make sure. You know, there's a very defined process.
I remember from the show Billions, that's where I had
all my expertise from about this. It was difficult for
the lead character with some of the shady dealings to
(01:12):
get that approval.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's a lot there's a lot of capital. That's a
huge part.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Raising capital to start the banks another big initiative. You
have to make sure you've got the ability to put
the capital together. And then also technology is a huge piece,
especially in today's day and age. You've got to come
to the table with some good, solid technology.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So there's a million other things I'm skipping, but those
are probably the three biggest hurdles we had to kind
of face and overcome as the regulatory barriers, the capital rais,
and then make sure we selected the right technology.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You left a twenty six year banking career to pursue
this idea kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
A risky preposite, Yeah, it sort of was. I guess
there's a little entrepreneur in me somewhere. Yeah. You decided
what that you wanted a new challenge, you know. Yeah,
I just in the back of my mind, I think
this is an idea that's been building for probably the
last you know, five to seven years.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And I'm a huge culture guy.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I love creating an environment where everybody can thrive, and
I really wanted to build an employee centric organization. And
I also recognize it with all the consolidation in the
last ten to fifteen years, especially the Tampa Bay really
needed a new local bank. Local banks just do such
a good job of leaning into the market better. We
get to know our customers on a more personal level,
(02:29):
and it's very healthy for the economy. But yeah, I
just thought it was time. And I'm fifty three now.
If you're ever going to do it, you always say
it takes you ten years to figure out how old
you are, right, So I would just say I wish
I would have done it sooner. But sometimes in life
you don't have maybe the self confidence yet to do it,
and you need someone, maybe a friend or a family
member to just kind of push you and say, hey,
(02:50):
why not now? And the stars finding a line for
me a couple of years ago, and I was able
to take the jump.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And now we're open.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So we've got a lot of banks in the area
and cure all the big names.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Give me an example, you know, I walk into Echelon
instead of one of those banks. What is different about it?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, And first of all, I think, you know, having
lots of banks is healthy for an area. But Echelon
Bank is a local bank. What's different is you can
really talk to decision makers. You can talk to people
who are veteran bankers with decades of experience that are
empowered to advocate on your behalf, make quick decisions and
really take the time to lean in a little bit
more understand your business or your specific banking needs and
(03:34):
then hopefully tailor a solution for you. The bigger banks
do some amazing things really well. Certainly, you know, they
can bank much larger companies, and when it comes to
international finance, there's other areas that we're just not going
to play in that space. But when it comes to
local owner managed businesses, small medium sized businesses, I think
many times they just want to talk to somebody who
(03:55):
can take some time to get to know them and
make a quick decision for them. Does that mean that
the local decision making Does that mean that you have
the ability to say yes to loans that you know
a national bank might reject?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Correct? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You know, sometimes you look at you know, a company's
financials and there's always noise in the numbers, and if
you just look at it, we call it elevator analysis,
Oh what went up? What went down? That's only the
superficial story of the business. To really understand that company,
you need to take some more time to understand, you know,
what are the the do a swat analysis, for example,
(04:29):
what are the strengths, weaknesses, the threats, the opportunities. And
if you do that and peel back the layers, you
might be able to say, listen, we understand, you know,
revenues down this and that, but we know why, and
we can understand that, mitigate it, and still come up
with a way to give give them some more capital
to help them grow. And that's what the cool thing
with local banks. All of the deposits that we gather,
(04:49):
we turn around and lend those those same deposits from
Tampa Bay to local businesses here in Tampa Bay. Sometimes
that's not true with large organizations, but that's why I
think community banks are so critical for the US economy.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
We're doing our CEOs you should no feature here on
the Ryan Gormachaw and we're joined by Robshaw, President and
CEO of Echelon Bank. You can learn more at Echelon
dot Bank. Let's talk technology for a second. How do
you utilize it, and we've got AI now taking over
(05:24):
so many different things. How is that impacting your decision
making and how you analyze different people businesses coming to
you for.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Correct Yeah, we're trying to thread the needle and find
the right balance between bringing in AI but not losing.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The personal touch.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So, like I talked about earlier, you know, when it
comes to underwriting, we still want to have that human interaction,
take the time. But there's definitely components of the process
that you can really now leverage this technology. For example,
the industry analysis that we do, that's all really that
are suited for an AI to put in some of
that data, But you still need a human being at
(06:05):
the end of the day to step back and look
at the the overall big picture and then make a decision.
But we're very careful, you know, banks we have to
be very confidential, So any AI that you do use
has to be very self contained. Yeah, you know, we
just put it in. The information's got to stay within
that schelan bank. But yeah, and then you know we've
got you know, when it comes to just organizing your
(06:27):
day and just just a lot of the mundane tasks.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think that's where we can see it improve.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It sounds a lot like and I find this in
all kinds of different industries. It's kind of like what
you hear.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know if you're a baseball fan or not,
but when they're talking analytics versus you know, human scouting
to try to get a sense, and that's kind of
the same balance like that your work.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That's a great analogy.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
There's still that eye test, yeah, right, something else that
you just can't quite define why you feel that way,
but there's something in it. So you don't want to
lose that right that we think is what makes us special.
But we do recognize that the world is changing rapidly
and we need to be on top of these new
merging technologies. You've made more than half a billion dollars
(07:13):
in loans.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Personally I have in my career. Yees.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, after all of those deals, when you sit across
the table from somebody, what is it that you're picking
up on about them, about their pitch about their business
that gives you that sense this makes sense or I'm
(07:37):
going forward with this one right? It's subtle. I would say,
you know, integrity number one. You can usually get a
read on somebody after a decent amount of time together
and make sure that they're an honest, sincere person. And
then there's just something about that ten thousand hours. When
someone's got that experience, that knowledge, in that space, you
can just tell the way they talk and you know,
(07:58):
we're as banker.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Is one of the cool things about us. We get
to be generalists. I get to learn a lot, but
not really deep, but a broad knowledge base.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But it's really radio is the same way too, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But then you talk to someone who's an expert's got
that ten thousand hours, you can quickly start to tell
how deep their knowledge goes. And it just comes through
conversations and face to face interaction. That's the part about
not just looking at the numbers and a yeah going on.
We call kicking the tires. I was going to say
it tangibles exactly. That's right, yeah, And I'm sure like
(08:30):
the passion that they have and all of these people
who are coming to you, they're trying to make a move,
they're trying to do something right, they're trying to grow,
they're trying to expand, maybe hire people, you know, buy
a new piece of machinery that's going to add efficiencies,
and that's where they need a capital partner. And that's
we want to be more than just a transaction to them.
We want to be their partner, not just on this deal,
(08:51):
but let's establish trust, the relationship, and let's build a
long term history together.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We're joined here on our CEOs you should know feature
by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank. So you've
been lending money around Tampa Bay for decades now, it's
ninety nine. How different is the area today, taking a
look at the economy, businesses, all of that compared to
when you got started.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Oh my god, I mean the growth has just been froround.
When I go back and think about my early days,
the bank is no longer in existence. Am South Bank,
Yes it was now as region's bank, a great, great bank.
That's where I was learned and trained. But the area
has just grown just by order and order of magnitude,
I feel like in terms of just the diversity there.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Even the lasts. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yes, and obviously so much growth to the north, the
northern counties. You know, we want to really bank the region.
Tampa Bay is more than just a city, It's really
a region. It's the seventeenth largest MSA in the entire country,
and if I had to pick an area to start
a bank, Tampa Bay would be number one of my
Fortunately it's where I live.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I have the relationships.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Here anyway, But even without that, objectively speaking, you just
start to look at the area around the country. Tampa
Bay has got such an amazing potential. I think we're
just getting started.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What industries around the region look strongest to you right now?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean we're very agnostic, you know when it comes
to you know, banking, but I think that the technology
area and that space. It's a broad field obviously, but
I think that's probably got the strongest tail when there's
so much excitement around you know, the tech area and
healthcare for sure is a major industry. Tourism is always
(10:31):
going to be our beaten heart. But I think that's
what gets me excited is that there really isn't a concentration,
you know, there's not just one thing. I think it's
very broadly dispersed, and that's really healthy for a region.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We're joined by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank,
taking all the politics out of it, just.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
To look at it where you see.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The economy in the region right now, our local businesses expanding,
do you find they're becoming a bit more cautious at
the moments.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I the last eighteen months I've been organizing in the bank,
I'm just getting back into some of the conversations around
businesses again. But I would say it's a little bit mixed.
I think there's definitely some caution out there, but by
and large, it's not nothing that I'm concerned about. I
think most businesses, broadly speaking, or optimistic, but they're definitely
(11:28):
watching things. Obviously, inflation is still a concern, and you
know where our rates headed right now. There's a little
bit of uncertainty around that, but it's not enough to
where people are postponing decisions. They're still executing their business plan,
they're still growing and expanding, and so overall I feel
very bullish about it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Is there one concern that you hear about the most,
whether it's interest rates, labor costs, insurance, you've got taxes, tariffs.
I mean, I think it's just a little bit of
just price volatility. There's been a lot of h you know,
gyrations and commodity prices, and and that that that's subsided,
but there's concerns that will come back again. You know,
(12:08):
there's a little bit of of a hangover effect. But
that and and just you know, on certainly around interest rates,
I think we're at a healthy point right now. Let's
talk about interest rates for a second. For somebody who's
wanting to buy a home, or you know, they're they're
looking to start a business, or they're a business that
(12:29):
needs to borrow some money, how much difference does FED
rate cut make for them?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I mean that the FED controls the short end of
the yield curve, you know, these decisions. Is someone's buying
a house, you know, that's more driven by the ten
year treasury And so you really can't get too fixated
on the Fed's decisions per se. There is correlation, but
it's not as much as people realize. If you look
at the thirty thousand foot level where rates are today
(12:57):
by historical levels, is still very attractive, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And so I was going to.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Say, like, if you take a big picture look, because
sometimes we're really.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Can we get in the moment exactly, we get kind
of down in the weeds level and you step up
and look at it. It's it's actually very attractive. This
is a healthy level of rates in my opinion. Okay,
And so I think people, you know, you can never
time you know, time the market or time of financing.
If it's time and for your family's needs you're looking
to maybe buy a house, or if it's a business,
you're going to make a decision, you need to execute
(13:26):
on those larger driving forces and not obsessed about well,
could the FED lower rates or quarter at their next
media If that happens, great, but it's not going to
affect you know, really your bigger plans.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So you feel like more.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Recently as we had those those rate cuts, you know
we're coming off those those really high interest rates that
that's helped stabilize things and gets to a decent place
even if we're not at those you know, historical low
ride exactly, that's right, I do. I think it goes
back to one of we have ten core values at
Echelon Bank. One of them is big picture thinking. And
(13:59):
if you apply that, that's where you realize that, yes,
interest rates matter, but they're not the only thing, right
and so don't sometimes people get too fixated on it.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
We're joined by Robshaw, President CEO of Echelon Bank here
on our CEOs you should know feature you can learn
more at Echelon dot Bank. We've got an election right
around the corner. What policies matter.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
In your industry when when you're looking at you know,
the different ideas being floated by both parties. Yeah, so,
you know, we have the FBA is our local advocate
here in the state of Florida. There's the ABA American
Bankers Association. Obviously they're advocating on behalf of us to
really ensure that the regulatory environment remains you know, favorable
(14:45):
and not doesn't get too onerous.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So that's something we try to focus on. Did you
find that.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Let let me stop there, because I've got a friend
who's in your industry and we talked from time to
time and he's told me story about you know, especially
after the financial crash in correct two thousand and eight,
there was perhaps an over correction and then there's been
(15:10):
an effort to bring things back a little bit. Tell
us about that, because you've been right in the middle
of Obviously after eight oh nine there really was a
deep freeze. There was really no new banks that were
being started. The environment was just much too prohibitive and
it was an over correction. But if we do that sometimes, yeah,
exactly this country. But little by little it started to
(15:31):
come back. I think if you look at the data
in twenty twenty five, there was thirty one new bank
charters in the country. This year with five months still
to go, we've already had thirty three. Wow, so we've
already twenty six is already exceeded twenty five by two
and we still got five months left.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
There's a new mini wave of new banks that are
starting and Florida's leading the nation. So the regulators have
been much more supportive. Yes, they still do their due diligence.
They want to make sure it's a very experienced team
that because it's such a powerful responsibility to be able
to take people's hard earned money and deposits and make
sure we're appropriately investing that. And what we wanted was
(16:10):
invested in local community bank loans. But they want to
make sure we're doing it appropriately right. So, but the
environment's been much more supportive. It's still very arduous and
it's a rigorous process, but the spirit and the supportiveness
is huge, and that really helped us a lot. What
was it like during the pandemic, Oh, my goodness, not
(16:35):
even so much just operating a bank foot but just
you know, with everything that was going on with the
loans the COVID, Like, oh my gosh, I remember the
those PPP loans. They were all consuming. There were literally
days I worked, I watched the sun go down and
then I watched the sun rise, and it was twenty
twenty four hour days. We were in the responsibility because
(16:57):
you know, the businesses people will will do. The year
was palpable, and you know, those of us, certainly in
local banking, we all have a passion for our customers.
We don't want to ever disappoint somebody, and I just
felt like there was just not enough time and the
rules were coming out in real time. Yeah, so we
made it very challenging. But I'm really proud of the
efforts for the banking industry and genial. Looking back at it, Yeah,
(17:20):
there was some abuse and no program is perfect, but
certainly I know the loans that we made during that time,
I think all really did a good job to help
local businesses get through that incredibly difficult time.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
We're joined by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank.
Here on our CEOs you should know feature. So your
background west Points. You mentioned your passion for building a culture.
A lot of CEOs they inherit company culture. Of course,
you get to start with a blank slate and build one.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, what do you want the culture to be? And
now have you arrived at that vision? Now you're talking
my language. This is my this is my favorite topic.
So you know, going way back, I went to Westbourne,
I studied physics engineering and I remember my professors throughout
my studies, they would always say, any complicated program, like,
begin with first principles and you know what do we know?
(18:19):
Let's write everything down and then from there you can
build up and scaffold. So that's why I believe building
a culture is like scaffolding. You know, you got to
start with those first principles, those core values. So we
have ten core values. They all center around empowerment and
the employees and UH and being innovative and communication. And
if you do all those things, eventually you know the
(18:40):
morale will be high and then people will be more efficient,
more engaged, and it just becomes a domino effect. You
really want to where everybody's self pleasing each other. It's
not just one person trying to drive the culture from
the top down, right, and it organically, you know, goes
from the bottom up. And so that's a huge passion
of mine. It's something that we talk about every day
(19:00):
as a leadership team. And it's easy when you're small.
We have thirty three employees, so we're growing, but obviously
eventually down though, we be double that size, right, So
it becomes more and more challenging as you scale, and
that's where it's going to be has to be self
policed because one or two people can't be driving it
when you get more broad diffuse organization.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So when you're trying to build that type of culture
with that mindset, what are you looking for in your
team members the people you're hiring.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, so I have to give a shout out to
a really great friend of mine named Gene Evans, who
sadly passed about five years ago or so, but he
always talked about plu so people like us and it's
a very broad term, but what it really gets down
to is people that have the same passion and we
love diversity, but we want to find people that all
(19:50):
have this innate just genuine, burning desire to serve a
service mindset where you want to take care of people,
help them grow, whatever, be just going the extra mile
for somebody. And there's there's something that's just innate in
many of us to have that. We want to find
people have that passion for service and then if they
have that, everything else will take care of itself. Yeah,
(20:12):
the knowledge can come, you know, the specific role, they
can grow, they can move around the organization. Hopefully as
we grow, we'll have a give a chance for employees
to diversifying and also, like a rising tide, everybody there's
many of us at Echelon are in new positions. I've
never been the CEO of a man. This is the
first shot time for me. You know, our CFO hasn't
actually been a CFO. So there's a lot of us
(20:33):
stepping up. But that's part of life, right right, and
that's that's the natural way of things.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
And as you're bringing people into Echelon Bank to build
this culture, what were some of the things that you've learned.
You mentioned a couple of lessons a moment ago, but
you've been in the industry for so long, you've seen
so much. What are some of the things along the
way that you've picked up that you're like, you know,
(21:00):
that's something I'm going to apply.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
This is something I'm going to apply.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And how does your time rising through the industry like
you did, how does that help you especially relate.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think a lot of employees in all kinds of
different businesses and industries, they feel like the person at
the top doesn't understand what they're going through or what
they're dealing with, or you able to you know, stay
in touch with Yeah, with those employees.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So one of our core values is a flat organizational culture.
And what I mean by that is, yes, we have
an org chart and there is a chain of command,
just like in the army, but that doesn't mean that
there can't be multiple layers of communication, even skipping levels, right,
as long as you're not leaving somebody out who needs
to be included. I want to encourage that communication top
(21:47):
to bottom. We're very fortunate, you know, having been in
the industry. I've been here since nineteen ninety nine. Now
we've really hired people that we know and have direct
firsthand experience having worked with before. Yeah, that's huge obviously,
but that's not sustainable forever. So as we on board
and grow the team, we're going to need to be
(22:07):
careful to really hire slowly and make sure we properly
vet them. We want to find people who have a
passion for banking, who want to be in a smaller,
more nimble, local bank because they know in that environment
they can advocate and be more valuable to their clients,
and just people who align with our core values. We
would love to you know, we don't want it to
be too lengthy of a process, but meet multiple people
(22:28):
in the organization, right and hopefully there's consensus. Usually if
it's the right fit, you'll get consensus pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Right now, what made you decide leading people as the CEO?
That's the job for me because I can tell you, you know,
just being in a workplace managing people.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, tough thing, right it is. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I just I love people. I love building a team.
I love seeing the synergistic effect. You know, they'll name echelon.
I love the sport of cycling, and when in the
sport of side echelon is a really cool formation. It's
a diagonal staggered formation that the riders ride in when
the crosswinds blow. And the reason they do that because
that's the most efficient way to work together. So any
(23:12):
group of riders moving forward to a goal, when the
winds are blowing, you want to ride in an echelon.
And that's what the name means for us. It's about teamwork.
The reason birds fly in a double that v Yeah,
that's it, it's a double echelon and they're not doing
that to look pretty. They're saving energy and that's what
we're doing that. That's the most efficient way to travel
through crosswinds. Wow. Yeah, So that's every member of the
(23:35):
echelon has a key role to play. My role is
really to build the team to protect the culture. I
love business development, so I obviously want to be as
much in the front as possible, and then also making
sure we protect the and manage the risk. You know,
the buck stops with me, so I have to really
have my fingers on the pulse of all areas of
(23:55):
risk in the bank. So the building process. Last question
for you up to this point, because I'm sure there's
there's much that you still have to do.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
How how has it been so far? Is it what
you thought of it?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Had succeeded. My expectation has been phenomenal. I won't by Fridays.
A lot of the times I'm exhausted, but it's a
really good exhaustion. You feel accomplished. It's been been a
tremendous rewarding process and it's really cool to see the
idea that we had about two years ago really start
to come to fruition. So we're just getting started, all right.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Rob Shaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank again. You
can learn more at Echelon dot bank. Rob with us
on our CEOs you should know feature. Rob really appreciate
the time.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Thanks Ryan,
Time now for our CEOs you should know feature here
on the Ryan Gorman Chill, and we're joined in studio
by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank. You can
learn more at Echelon dot bank. Rob thanks so much
for taking a few minutes to come in. Thanks, Ryan,
You're welcome. We have so much to talk about your
Tampa Bay's newest community bank, and that's just that you're
(00:22):
a bank that started completely from scratch.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
How does that work.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's not like you could just say, Alexa, build me
a new bank, exactly. There's a little bit more to
it than that. So how do you go about building
a bank from scratch? It takes about eighteen months the
Denovo startup process for a bank on average. There's a
lot of things to do. Obviously, the biggest barrier to
entry really is you need to make sure you get
(00:48):
regulatory approval. You've got to work very closely with the regulators,
the FDI S we're a state charter bank, so the
OFR out of Tallahassee, and you know, you just need
to make sure. You know, there's a very defined process.
I remember from the show Billions, that's where I had
all my expertise from about this. It was difficult for
the lead character with some of the shady dealings to
(01:12):
get that approval.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It's a lot there's a lot of capital. That's a
huge part.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Raising capital to start the banks another big initiative. You
have to make sure you've got the ability to put
the capital together. And then also technology is a huge piece,
especially in today's day and age. You've got to come
to the table with some good, solid technology.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So there's a million other things I'm skipping, but those
are probably the three biggest hurdles we had to kind
of face and overcome as the regulatory barriers, the capital rais,
and then make sure we selected the right technology.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You left a twenty six year banking career to pursue
this idea kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
A risky preposite, Yeah, it sort of was. I guess
there's a little entrepreneur in me somewhere. Yeah. You decided
what that you wanted a new challenge, you know. Yeah,
I just in the back of my mind, I think
this is an idea that's been building for probably the
last you know, five to seven years.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And I'm a huge culture guy.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
I love creating an environment where everybody can thrive, and
I really wanted to build an employee centric organization. And
I also recognize it with all the consolidation in the
last ten to fifteen years, especially the Tampa Bay really
needed a new local bank. Local banks just do such
a good job of leaning into the market better. We
get to know our customers on a more personal level,
(02:29):
and it's very healthy for the economy. But yeah, I
just thought it was time. And I'm fifty three now.
If you're ever going to do it, you always say
it takes you ten years to figure out how old
you are, right, So I would just say I wish
I would have done it sooner. But sometimes in life
you don't have maybe the self confidence yet to do it,
and you need someone, maybe a friend or a family
member to just kind of push you and say, hey,
(02:50):
why not now? And the stars finding a line for
me a couple of years ago, and I was able
to take the jump.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And now we're open.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So we've got a lot of banks in the area
and cure all the big names.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Give me an example, you know, I walk into Echelon
instead of one of those banks. What is different about it?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, And first of all, I think, you know, having
lots of banks is healthy for an area. But Echelon
Bank is a local bank. What's different is you can
really talk to decision makers. You can talk to people
who are veteran bankers with decades of experience that are
empowered to advocate on your behalf, make quick decisions and
really take the time to lean in a little bit
more understand your business or your specific banking needs and
(03:34):
then hopefully tailor a solution for you. The bigger banks
do some amazing things really well. Certainly, you know, they
can bank much larger companies, and when it comes to
international finance, there's other areas that we're just not going
to play in that space. But when it comes to
local owner managed businesses, small medium sized businesses, I think
many times they just want to talk to somebody who
(03:55):
can take some time to get to know them and
make a quick decision for them. Does that mean that
the local decision making Does that mean that you have
the ability to say yes to loans that you know
a national bank might reject?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Correct? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You know, sometimes you look at you know, a company's
financials and there's always noise in the numbers, and if
you just look at it, we call it elevator analysis,
Oh what went up? What went down? That's only the
superficial story of the business. To really understand that company,
you need to take some more time to understand, you know,
what are the the do a swat analysis, for example,
(04:29):
what are the strengths, weaknesses, the threats, the opportunities. And
if you do that and peel back the layers, you
might be able to say, listen, we understand, you know,
revenues down this and that, but we know why, and
we can understand that, mitigate it, and still come up
with a way to give give them some more capital
to help them grow. And that's what the cool thing
with local banks. All of the deposits that we gather,
(04:49):
we turn around and lend those those same deposits from
Tampa Bay to local businesses here in Tampa Bay. Sometimes
that's not true with large organizations, but that's why I
think community banks are so critical for the US economy.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
We're doing our CEOs you should no feature here on
the Ryan Gormachaw and we're joined by Robshaw, President and
CEO of Echelon Bank. You can learn more at Echelon
dot Bank. Let's talk technology for a second. How do
you utilize it, and we've got AI now taking over
(05:24):
so many different things. How is that impacting your decision
making and how you analyze different people businesses coming to
you for.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Correct Yeah, we're trying to thread the needle and find
the right balance between bringing in AI but not losing.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The personal touch.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So, like I talked about earlier, you know, when it
comes to underwriting, we still want to have that human interaction,
take the time. But there's definitely components of the process
that you can really now leverage this technology. For example,
the industry analysis that we do, that's all really that
are suited for an AI to put in some of
that data, But you still need a human being at
(06:05):
the end of the day to step back and look
at the the overall big picture and then make a decision.
But we're very careful, you know, banks we have to
be very confidential, So any AI that you do use
has to be very self contained. Yeah, you know, we
just put it in. The information's got to stay within
that schelan bank. But yeah, and then you know we've
got you know, when it comes to just organizing your
(06:27):
day and just just a lot of the mundane tasks.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think that's where we can see it improve.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It sounds a lot like and I find this in
all kinds of different industries. It's kind of like what
you hear.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I don't know if you're a baseball fan or not,
but when they're talking analytics versus you know, human scouting
to try to get a sense, and that's kind of
the same balance like that your work.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That's a great analogy.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
There's still that eye test, yeah, right, something else that
you just can't quite define why you feel that way,
but there's something in it. So you don't want to
lose that right that we think is what makes us special.
But we do recognize that the world is changing rapidly
and we need to be on top of these new
merging technologies. You've made more than half a billion dollars
(07:13):
in loans.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Personally I have in my career. Yees.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, after all of those deals, when you sit across
the table from somebody, what is it that you're picking
up on about them, about their pitch about their business
that gives you that sense this makes sense or I'm
(07:37):
going forward with this one right? It's subtle. I would say,
you know, integrity number one. You can usually get a
read on somebody after a decent amount of time together
and make sure that they're an honest, sincere person. And
then there's just something about that ten thousand hours. When
someone's got that experience, that knowledge, in that space, you
can just tell the way they talk and you know,
(07:58):
we're as banker.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Is one of the cool things about us. We get
to be generalists. I get to learn a lot, but
not really deep, but a broad knowledge base.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But it's really radio is the same way too, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But then you talk to someone who's an expert's got
that ten thousand hours, you can quickly start to tell
how deep their knowledge goes. And it just comes through
conversations and face to face interaction. That's the part about
not just looking at the numbers and a yeah going on.
We call kicking the tires. I was going to say
it tangibles exactly. That's right, yeah, And I'm sure like
(08:30):
the passion that they have and all of these people
who are coming to you, they're trying to make a move,
they're trying to do something right, they're trying to grow,
they're trying to expand, maybe hire people, you know, buy
a new piece of machinery that's going to add efficiencies,
and that's where they need a capital partner. And that's
we want to be more than just a transaction to them.
We want to be their partner, not just on this deal,
(08:51):
but let's establish trust, the relationship, and let's build a
long term history together.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
We're joined here on our CEOs you should know feature
by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank. So you've
been lending money around Tampa Bay for decades now, it's
ninety nine. How different is the area today, taking a
look at the economy, businesses, all of that compared to
when you got started.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Oh my god, I mean the growth has just been froround.
When I go back and think about my early days,
the bank is no longer in existence. Am South Bank,
Yes it was now as region's bank, a great, great bank.
That's where I was learned and trained. But the area
has just grown just by order and order of magnitude,
I feel like in terms of just the diversity there.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Even the lasts. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yes, and obviously so much growth to the north, the
northern counties. You know, we want to really bank the region.
Tampa Bay is more than just a city, It's really
a region. It's the seventeenth largest MSA in the entire country,
and if I had to pick an area to start
a bank, Tampa Bay would be number one of my
Fortunately it's where I live.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I have the relationships.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Here anyway, But even without that, objectively speaking, you just
start to look at the area around the country. Tampa
Bay has got such an amazing potential. I think we're
just getting started.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What industries around the region look strongest to you right now?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean we're very agnostic, you know when it comes
to you know, banking, but I think that the technology
area and that space. It's a broad field obviously, but
I think that's probably got the strongest tail when there's
so much excitement around you know, the tech area and
healthcare for sure is a major industry. Tourism is always
(10:31):
going to be our beaten heart. But I think that's
what gets me excited is that there really isn't a concentration,
you know, there's not just one thing. I think it's
very broadly dispersed, and that's really healthy for a region.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
We're joined by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank,
taking all the politics out of it, just.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
To look at it where you see.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
The economy in the region right now, our local businesses expanding,
do you find they're becoming a bit more cautious at
the moments.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I the last eighteen months I've been organizing in the bank,
I'm just getting back into some of the conversations around
businesses again. But I would say it's a little bit mixed.
I think there's definitely some caution out there, but by
and large, it's not nothing that I'm concerned about. I
think most businesses, broadly speaking, or optimistic, but they're definitely
(11:28):
watching things. Obviously, inflation is still a concern, and you
know where our rates headed right now. There's a little
bit of uncertainty around that, but it's not enough to
where people are postponing decisions. They're still executing their business plan,
they're still growing and expanding, and so overall I feel
very bullish about it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Is there one concern that you hear about the most,
whether it's interest rates, labor costs, insurance, you've got taxes, tariffs.
I mean, I think it's just a little bit of
just price volatility. There's been a lot of h you know,
gyrations and commodity prices, and and that that that's subsided,
but there's concerns that will come back again. You know,
(12:08):
there's a little bit of of a hangover effect. But
that and and just you know, on certainly around interest rates,
I think we're at a healthy point right now. Let's
talk about interest rates for a second. For somebody who's
wanting to buy a home, or you know, they're they're
looking to start a business, or they're a business that
(12:29):
needs to borrow some money, how much difference does FED
rate cut make for them?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
I mean that the FED controls the short end of
the yield curve, you know, these decisions. Is someone's buying
a house, you know, that's more driven by the ten
year treasury And so you really can't get too fixated
on the Fed's decisions per se. There is correlation, but
it's not as much as people realize. If you look
at the thirty thousand foot level where rates are today
(12:57):
by historical levels, is still very attractive, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And so I was going to.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Say, like, if you take a big picture look, because
sometimes we're really.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Can we get in the moment exactly, we get kind
of down in the weeds level and you step up
and look at it. It's it's actually very attractive. This
is a healthy level of rates in my opinion. Okay,
And so I think people, you know, you can never
time you know, time the market or time of financing.
If it's time and for your family's needs you're looking
to maybe buy a house, or if it's a business,
you're going to make a decision, you need to execute
(13:26):
on those larger driving forces and not obsessed about well,
could the FED lower rates or quarter at their next
media If that happens, great, but it's not going to
affect you know, really your bigger plans.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
So you feel like more.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Recently as we had those those rate cuts, you know
we're coming off those those really high interest rates that
that's helped stabilize things and gets to a decent place
even if we're not at those you know, historical low
ride exactly, that's right, I do. I think it goes
back to one of we have ten core values at
Echelon Bank. One of them is big picture thinking. And
(13:59):
if you apply that, that's where you realize that, yes,
interest rates matter, but they're not the only thing, right
and so don't sometimes people get too fixated on it.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
We're joined by Robshaw, President CEO of Echelon Bank here
on our CEOs you should know feature you can learn
more at Echelon dot Bank. We've got an election right
around the corner. What policies matter.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
In your industry when when you're looking at you know,
the different ideas being floated by both parties. Yeah, so,
you know, we have the FBA is our local advocate
here in the state of Florida. There's the ABA American
Bankers Association. Obviously they're advocating on behalf of us to
really ensure that the regulatory environment remains you know, favorable
(14:45):
and not doesn't get too onerous.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So that's something we try to focus on. Did you
find that.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Let let me stop there, because I've got a friend
who's in your industry and we talked from time to
time and he's told me story about you know, especially
after the financial crash in correct two thousand and eight,
there was perhaps an over correction and then there's been
(15:10):
an effort to bring things back a little bit. Tell
us about that, because you've been right in the middle
of Obviously after eight oh nine there really was a
deep freeze. There was really no new banks that were
being started. The environment was just much too prohibitive and
it was an over correction. But if we do that sometimes, yeah,
exactly this country. But little by little it started to
(15:31):
come back. I think if you look at the data
in twenty twenty five, there was thirty one new bank
charters in the country. This year with five months still
to go, we've already had thirty three. Wow, so we've
already twenty six is already exceeded twenty five by two
and we still got five months left.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
There's a new mini wave of new banks that are
starting and Florida's leading the nation. So the regulators have
been much more supportive. Yes, they still do their due diligence.
They want to make sure it's a very experienced team
that because it's such a powerful responsibility to be able
to take people's hard earned money and deposits and make
sure we're appropriately investing that. And what we wanted was
(16:10):
invested in local community bank loans. But they want to
make sure we're doing it appropriately right. So, but the
environment's been much more supportive. It's still very arduous and
it's a rigorous process, but the spirit and the supportiveness
is huge, and that really helped us a lot. What
was it like during the pandemic, Oh, my goodness, not
(16:35):
even so much just operating a bank foot but just
you know, with everything that was going on with the
loans the COVID, Like, oh my gosh, I remember the
those PPP loans. They were all consuming. There were literally
days I worked, I watched the sun go down and
then I watched the sun rise, and it was twenty
twenty four hour days. We were in the responsibility because
(16:57):
you know, the businesses people will will do. The year
was palpable, and you know, those of us, certainly in
local banking, we all have a passion for our customers.
We don't want to ever disappoint somebody, and I just
felt like there was just not enough time and the
rules were coming out in real time. Yeah, so we
made it very challenging. But I'm really proud of the
efforts for the banking industry and genial. Looking back at it, Yeah,
(17:20):
there was some abuse and no program is perfect, but
certainly I know the loans that we made during that time,
I think all really did a good job to help
local businesses get through that incredibly difficult time.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
We're joined by Robshaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank.
Here on our CEOs you should know feature. So your
background west Points. You mentioned your passion for building a culture.
A lot of CEOs they inherit company culture. Of course,
you get to start with a blank slate and build one.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, what do you want the culture to be? And
now have you arrived at that vision? Now you're talking
my language. This is my this is my favorite topic.
So you know, going way back, I went to Westbourne,
I studied physics engineering and I remember my professors throughout
my studies, they would always say, any complicated program, like,
begin with first principles and you know what do we know?
(18:19):
Let's write everything down and then from there you can
build up and scaffold. So that's why I believe building
a culture is like scaffolding. You know, you got to
start with those first principles, those core values. So we
have ten core values. They all center around empowerment and
the employees and UH and being innovative and communication. And
if you do all those things, eventually you know the
(18:40):
morale will be high and then people will be more efficient,
more engaged, and it just becomes a domino effect. You
really want to where everybody's self pleasing each other. It's
not just one person trying to drive the culture from
the top down, right, and it organically, you know, goes
from the bottom up. And so that's a huge passion
of mine. It's something that we talk about every day
(19:00):
as a leadership team. And it's easy when you're small.
We have thirty three employees, so we're growing, but obviously
eventually down though, we be double that size, right, So
it becomes more and more challenging as you scale, and
that's where it's going to be has to be self
policed because one or two people can't be driving it
when you get more broad diffuse organization.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
So when you're trying to build that type of culture
with that mindset, what are you looking for in your
team members the people you're hiring.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, so I have to give a shout out to
a really great friend of mine named Gene Evans, who
sadly passed about five years ago or so, but he
always talked about plu so people like us and it's
a very broad term, but what it really gets down
to is people that have the same passion and we
love diversity, but we want to find people that all
(19:50):
have this innate just genuine, burning desire to serve a
service mindset where you want to take care of people,
help them grow, whatever, be just going the extra mile
for somebody. And there's there's something that's just innate in
many of us to have that. We want to find
people have that passion for service and then if they
have that, everything else will take care of itself. Yeah,
(20:12):
the knowledge can come, you know, the specific role, they
can grow, they can move around the organization. Hopefully as
we grow, we'll have a give a chance for employees
to diversifying and also, like a rising tide, everybody there's
many of us at Echelon are in new positions. I've
never been the CEO of a man. This is the
first shot time for me. You know, our CFO hasn't
actually been a CFO. So there's a lot of us
(20:33):
stepping up. But that's part of life, right right, and
that's that's the natural way of things.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
And as you're bringing people into Echelon Bank to build
this culture, what were some of the things that you've learned.
You mentioned a couple of lessons a moment ago, but
you've been in the industry for so long, you've seen
so much. What are some of the things along the
way that you've picked up that you're like, you know,
(21:00):
that's something I'm going to apply.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
This is something I'm going to apply.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And how does your time rising through the industry like
you did, how does that help you especially relate.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I think a lot of employees in all kinds of
different businesses and industries, they feel like the person at
the top doesn't understand what they're going through or what
they're dealing with, or you able to you know, stay
in touch with Yeah, with those employees.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
So one of our core values is a flat organizational culture.
And what I mean by that is, yes, we have
an org chart and there is a chain of command,
just like in the army, but that doesn't mean that
there can't be multiple layers of communication, even skipping levels, right,
as long as you're not leaving somebody out who needs
to be included. I want to encourage that communication top
(21:47):
to bottom. We're very fortunate, you know, having been in
the industry. I've been here since nineteen ninety nine. Now
we've really hired people that we know and have direct
firsthand experience having worked with before. Yeah, that's huge obviously,
but that's not sustainable forever. So as we on board
and grow the team, we're going to need to be
(22:07):
careful to really hire slowly and make sure we properly
vet them. We want to find people who have a
passion for banking, who want to be in a smaller,
more nimble, local bank because they know in that environment
they can advocate and be more valuable to their clients,
and just people who align with our core values. We
would love to you know, we don't want it to
be too lengthy of a process, but meet multiple people
(22:28):
in the organization, right and hopefully there's consensus. Usually if
it's the right fit, you'll get consensus pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Right now, what made you decide leading people as the CEO?
That's the job for me because I can tell you, you know,
just being in a workplace managing people.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, tough thing, right it is. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
I just I love people. I love building a team.
I love seeing the synergistic effect. You know, they'll name echelon.
I love the sport of cycling, and when in the
sport of side echelon is a really cool formation. It's
a diagonal staggered formation that the riders ride in when
the crosswinds blow. And the reason they do that because
that's the most efficient way to work together. So any
(23:12):
group of riders moving forward to a goal, when the
winds are blowing, you want to ride in an echelon.
And that's what the name means for us. It's about teamwork.
The reason birds fly in a double that v Yeah,
that's it, it's a double echelon and they're not doing
that to look pretty. They're saving energy and that's what
we're doing that. That's the most efficient way to travel
through crosswinds. Wow. Yeah, So that's every member of the
(23:35):
echelon has a key role to play. My role is
really to build the team to protect the culture. I
love business development, so I obviously want to be as
much in the front as possible, and then also making
sure we protect the and manage the risk. You know,
the buck stops with me, so I have to really
have my fingers on the pulse of all areas of
(23:55):
risk in the bank. So the building process. Last question
for you up to this point, because I'm sure there's
there's much that you still have to do.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
How how has it been so far? Is it what
you thought of it?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Had succeeded. My expectation has been phenomenal. I won't by Fridays.
A lot of the times I'm exhausted, but it's a
really good exhaustion. You feel accomplished. It's been been a
tremendous rewarding process and it's really cool to see the
idea that we had about two years ago really start
to come to fruition. So we're just getting started, all right.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Rob Shaw, President and CEO of Echelon Bank again. You
can learn more at Echelon dot bank. Rob with us
on our CEOs you should know feature. Rob really appreciate
the time.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Thanks Ryan,
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