November 21, 2023 • 29 mins
JEFFREY H. JACKSON, age 51, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation and the Bank. Mr. Jackson joined the Corporation on August 15, 2022 as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation and President and Chief Operating Officer of the Bank. Mr. Jackson came to the Corporation following a successful 14-year tenure with First Horizon Bank where his previous roles included Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Regional Banking based in Memphis, TN, Regional President for the State of Florida and Market President for Southeast Tennessee and Atlanta. Prior to his career in banking, he spent 15 years with IBM in a variety of positions. Mr. Jackson is a graduate of Auburn University and received a Certificate of Corporate strategy from Columbia University.
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(00:19):
Well, welcome to CEOs. Youshould know. I am your host,
Mike Howard, Vice President of Membership, Education and Events at the Wheeling Area
Chamber of Commerce. We are happyto be the promoter of CEOs you should
know. With our partners at iHeartRadio Wheeling, we are sponsored by West
Banco and West Virginia Northern Community College. In studio today is the brand new
(00:41):
CEO of West Banco. Speaking ofWest Banco, mister Jeff Jackson, Jeff,
welcome to CEOs you should know.Hey, good afternoon, Thanks for
having me. Glad to get youin here so we can hear the story
of what in the world brought youto Wheeling, West Virginia. Well,
you know that's a great question forme obviously. Uh. When I was
(01:02):
sitting in Memphis and I was arecruiter found me and started describing the opportunity
of West Banco. I'd only beento West Virginia one time. Six years
ago. I came down to wheartonWest Virginia. A good friend of mine
was getting married. Never been toWest Virginia, you go, And so,
as I tell people from Wharton,I said, I uh went to
(01:23):
the wedding at Williams country club,ate at DJ's, went to the holiday
and bar and stayed right there anduh got a good taste of Wharton six
years ago. So that was reallymy only experience with West Virginia prior to
uh, you know, looking atthis job, and uh, once I
started hearing about West Banco and understandingtheir strong foundation and then really the people.
(01:44):
So for me, I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and when I look
around here in Wheeling, it's verysimilar, very similar background, very similar
topography, people, culture, justgood hearted people that want to do the
best they can. And so forme looking at this opportunity, when I
started with First Tennessee Bank in twothousand and nine, it was a very
similar size bank, great culture,both cultures really match each other. You
(02:07):
had long tenured employees. I meanwe still have, believe it or not.
There's a couple of people in ourmaintenance area over in Cincinnati. They're
eighty years old and they still workfor us. Bill Ward, that's a
strong culture that we try to provideour employees. Yeah, well that's a
great West Virginia baptism story. Justto break into the mountaineer way, hup
(02:28):
and weird, and that's exactly.No, the whole community has been incredibly
welcoming to me and my wife andmy daughter who's a senior at Lensley,
and so it's just been a reallygreat experience for us. Yeah. I
have met your wife. We've beeninvolved with her with leadership Wheeling, and
she was telling us a lot abouthow you all see these similarities between us
and Chattanooga. And I'm kind oflike, if we can get halfway to
(02:49):
where Chattanooga is in the valley,we'll be doing pretty good. I would
agree. I would agree. Butyou know, Wheeling is very similar to
Chattanooga. When I grew up,the downtown was starting to get transformed,
a lot of new buildings going on, a lot of new enterprises coming to
Wheeling in West Virginia. So it'sit feels like Chattanooga. And when I
when I was a kid, wereyou raised there? I raised? Oh,
okay, I was, well,that's yeah. I have a brother
(03:13):
who got smart. He was apilot for Delta retired now was visiting some
friends in Chattanooga and decided to buya boat and found out if you put
the boat in the water in Tennesseeand declare that he's residents. He'd save
a heck of a lot of taxes, and so he doesn't have to pay
taxes on his house in Georgia,and so he's technically a Tennessee resident.
It pays for the boat. Yeah, for sure, Tennessee has a,
(03:34):
like I said, a lot ofsimilarities to West Virginia. Low tax is
very pro business, very forward looking. Yeah, on where they want to
be. Oh yeah. I dida couple of years in Nashville and saw
that this was many years ago withHyatt Hotels and loved it. And I
visited him in Chattanooga and we talkedabout Tennessee a lot. My wife's favorite
thing to watch is this lady thatdoes cavapoo dogs and we watch we're watching
(03:57):
these dogs. I'm sure I'm gonnaend up with a cavapoo pretty soon.
Okay, we're talking with Jeff Jackson, the CEO of West Banco and Jeff,
you have been here how long now? A little over a year.
My family moved here August first lastyear, just in time for the school
year to start. Okay, soback in the day in Chattanooga, I'm
assuming you know, grade school,junior high, high school, what were
your interests in high school sports,activities, clubs, anything like that.
(04:20):
What would you like the people toknow. Oh, sure, I played
a lot of sports, played footballand basketball during different part periods of that.
Went to public high school and playedfootball there and golf all right the
last couple couple of years, andthen after that went to Auburn University.
That was gonna be my next question. Okay, so you're a that's the
(04:40):
Tigers, right, it is.It is the Tigers that also yelled war
eagle as the world cry, butthey have an eagle that flies on the
field. Yeah. I have aMy college roommate for the four years until
he went, and then that's wherehe went was too. He was always
his last year he was always yellingwar. He's like, what are you
doing? That's where I'm going.I'm going to Auburn for grad school.
Engineer. Very successful, so goodschool from what I hear. So how
(05:01):
was that experience for you at Auburn? Was it much different than being in
Chattanooga? Definitely it was. It'sa big school, you know, and
everything in that town is related aroundthe school, and so it was a
great experience. But when I graduatedfrom there, you know, the economy
was really in a bad shape.So I was fortunate enough to get a
job as a supplemental employee with IBMGlobal Financing. Okay, and so when
(05:23):
people hear that, that was basically, if you think about G capital maybe
back in the ninety some sort ofcaptive finance company, that's what IBM Global
Financing was, but really for IBMcustomers and other technology customers. And so
I was hired on supplemental. Istill have my first actual offer letter.
I was paid ten ninety an hourand I was eligible for overtime, and
I was really excited to have theopportunity. That's great. So tell me
(05:46):
you didn't change your major three timeslike I did when you were in college.
I just changed it once one time. I want to be a doctor.
I sat in chemistry and then realized, wow, this is really difficult.
I'm not sure I could do severalmore years of that. So but
I moved over to business and foundthat more to my likening for things I'm
better at. I guess you naturallymoved to things you like and you do
better than others. But originally thoughtI was going to be a doctor.
(06:09):
Well, you know, we needdoctors we need bankers, we need all
of them. And I'm glad youfound the one that you were looking for,
and we're glad you're here in theHigh Valley. This is great.
So experiences in college, what maybeelse happened that made you think about where
you were going to be heading professors, any folks like that that that might
have steered you ledga that you're like, yeah, that person really had an
(06:31):
influence on me in college. Youknow it was I'd say it was so
long ago, Well there is that, but no, there was. I
think you know, the one thingcollege really brings to light for people is
you know, you're no longer livingwith your parents for the most part,
you're no longer under their roof.And for me, it was a time
(06:53):
for me to say, hey,look it's it's all me right. It's
go to the good or the bad, or the highs and the low.
And I think that everybody at somepoint realizes that in life, and for
me that was when like, look, everything I do going forward is really
me right, and what I domy actions, I have to own everything.
And I think that was also thetime in my life one of the
(07:14):
times where you know you have thehighs and the lows right, and so
you know, you get a low, and I remember sitting there thinking about
one of the lower times and thinking, look, I can sit here and
let this hit on me for thenext months, years, weeks, or
I can say, hey, lookit is what it is. I got
to move forward. I got tofigure out a path for the future and
(07:34):
positively move my life forward. Andso I think that was one of the
times in my life that you know, they say, you know, negative
things make you stronger, but Ithink it also makes you change the way
you think, and it brings outthings in you you may not have known
that you had. The old sayingthat which does not kill us make us
stronger. Is is still apropos today, I believe. So after IBM Corporate
(07:56):
Global Finance, I think you said, what was kind of the progression there
into the more banking world. Iguess, yeah, sure. So just
real quick on the IBM Glow Financing. You know, I was hired in
June, I was twenty one yearsold, and then I worked really hard,
got it hired on full time,and then thought I'd made it back
in March the next year, andso I was really excited about that I
(08:18):
met my wife at IBM Glow Financingand we both moved up to New York
and Connecticut. So we went upthere, lived up there for five years.
I was up there when nine toeleven happened. We just had our
son. We were not working inthe city, but we were working,
you know, about twenty miles outsidethe city, and so at that point
we kind of took another step andsaid, you know, is this the
(08:39):
life we want to live? Right? We were commuting forty miles each way,
we had a young child, andwe really well, we had friends
there, obviously, no family,no support and so fortunately my wife was
able to get a job at UnimInsurance in Chattanooga and they let me work
from home. So I got towork out of my house for seven years
as basically like a commercial banker butserving the southeast Tennessee. So I traveled
(09:03):
a lot, went out making salescalls things like that, while my wife
was able to work in Chattanooga,and we had our daughter at that point
too, and so it just madeit easier. All my families from Chattanooga,
so we had a support system therethat really helped. And then when
did you end up? You mentionedMemphis, right. Actually I started with
First Tennessee, which is now Firstarising in October, okay, two thousand
(09:28):
and nine. So one of thekey points, you know, if I
look back at some of the setbacksand things that make its stronger, as
I talked about, you know,in two thousand and nine, IBM Global
Financing decided to shut down my wholedivision. Oh well, I was let
go. Another fifty sixty people werelet go just in my group, right,
And so that was a real bigsetback of you know, I was
one of the top producing people there, but you know, it was a
(09:52):
big setback and I had to reevaluateeverything. I remember my wife, she
was fortunate to make our President's trip. So I'm in Disney World on my
first day leaving IBM, walking aroundDisney World and we're just chatting and saying,
you know, this first time sinceprobably I was fourteen years old,
I didn't have a job, andso it's a different feeling o me.
But you know, it's a goodtime to basically reflect and say where do
(10:13):
I want my life to be andhow do I get there and how do
I do it? And so fromthere I kind of took the summer off,
did some training and different things,but was fortunate enough to have some
good friends that worked at First TennesseeBank at the time, and then started
with them as a commercial banker inOctober of two thousand and nine. Okay,
so how long did that last?So I progressed through in different roles
(10:37):
and became market president in twenty sixteen. And then one of my great mentors
and boss came to me and said, hey, we just bought a bank.
Once you go into Florida and runour entire bank. So in twenty
eighteen, I went to the stateof Florida, lived in Miami and also
in Naples, Florida, and reallybrought in the new bank into our culture,
(10:58):
did a lot of hiring, alot of person issues, and really
built out a business across South Florida. And so I was there for two
years. Then our bank did amerger of equals with another bank, and
so at that point I was promotedto go to Memphis to be the chief
operating officer. Okay, back toTennessee. Back to Tennessee, but the
other side of the state. Andthat's what I was kind of getting at.
(11:18):
What is that you've been to Connecticutfor I mean, we know the
difference is north south Tennessee is along state that east west six hour whatever
difference that or even more, Iguess what was that like? It was
really different, I mean somewhere insome respects. But you know, on
the Memphis the far west point,it's very flat. It's on the Mississippi
River, which is probably four tofive times wider than the Ohio River.
(11:41):
Here it's a working river, soyou're not getting people out boating. I
mean, it is a dark,vicious river that has a lot of barge
traffic yep on it, and thepeople are all great over in Memphis as
well, but just different, differenttypes of cultures. And it's really I
think all the movie Rounds really helpedme as well understand different types of cultures
within state cities, locations. Sothen getting to wheeling from let's talk about
(12:07):
first from the professional side, whatdo you see different about your role now
versus a couple of these others youhave had. Obviously I'm sure COVID has
made a change in that a littlebit, especially with hiring remote working all
that. What are the similarities andthe differences I guess you see here versus
the last job or two you've had. Sure, I think one obviously being
the CEO, you're responsible for everything, I mean, everything rolls to you.
(12:33):
And then you also you know,obviously report to the board, but
also have a big responsibility to shareholdersand investors, and so I do a
lot of discussions with both of thoseand the board of obviously trying to build
up our stock price, reassure investorsof our strength of our company, and
tell our story the same the samethings about my previous role in the current
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role is I have to manage andbring in great talent. I have to
recruit, I have to promote,I have to set goals and really continue
with what I look at my leadershipstyle as of a servant leadership style of
where I every day I'm trying tothink, how do I make my people
better, how do I get themmore successful, how do I give them
the tools to really achieve their goals? How do I talk about their career?
(13:22):
And by the way, how doI bring in more people like them?
Right and as we grow. That'sone of my top items I'm looking
to do really at the top prioritiesis really bring in and retain top talent
because to me, I think alot of banks we can offer a lot
of similarities, but you can't offertop people, top service and really provide
a great place to work. Thepeople become the big difference, don't they
(13:43):
They do without it. Out you'relistening to CEOs, you should know.
I'm your host, Mike Howard fromthe Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce. We
are in studio with Jeff Jackson,the new CEO here at West Banco branch
numbers. How big are we talkingwith the bank now? Yeah, we're
seventeen and a half billion dollar bank, one hundred and ninety five branches.
Okay, that's more than I eventhought across six states. We actually operate
(14:07):
in eight states. We have loanproduction offices. We just opened up one
in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Some peopleI used to know, really great bankers,
we were able to bring them over. We also have a loan production
office in Indianapolis, Yanna as well. What are some of the I guess
differences you've seen over the years inthe banking things you might not have had
to think about even in your position, or if you had been CEO,
(14:30):
you know, twenty years ago,versus what you have to think about now
in the banking. Is it thelegal side, is it the financial the
interest rate. I'm always interested inhow things have changed for people and what
you got to think about now?Sure, well, I think I'll tell
you the things that haven't changed istaking care of your customers, taking care
of your employees, and taking careof your communities. Give the money back,
(14:52):
yeah, and given your time back. That's the stuff that hasn't changed.
I think sometimes banks can overlook,right, and so many of these
things. Yeah, absolutely, thoseare things we are really focused on.
It is taking care of our customers, employees, communities. I think some
of the things that have changed overthe last you know, six months,
two years. Obviously, interest ratesgoing up tremendously, right, and so
(15:13):
it's had a dramatic impact on allbanks. We had kind of a little
banking crisis, you know, afew months ago or a few banks unfortunately
went out of business. We werevery fortunate. We're in great shape financially
from our capital positions. But stillthat doesn't mean we don't look at making
sure we have the right deposits andmaking sure you know, we're really going
after deposits. It's also making surethat we're watching our capital levels and watching
(15:39):
all our loans, and we havegreat credit quality as well. So for
us, you know, things arealways heightened at times depending on the cycles
we go through, but we've gotgreat processes and people in place that it's
really makes it easy for me becauseof the great people I have looking over
all these things. Yeah, soat this point in many of my eos
(16:00):
you to know podcasts, I gointo the leadership style. You already brought
my favorite leadership phrase up servant leadership. Where do you think for you that
began to become a reality or understandingthat concept? You know? I think
for me, I've always been onteams, okay, so it's always been
how do I make our team bea winner? And we've won different things
(16:22):
in different teams through high school andother times in my life. But it's
also I think when you know,when you become that first manager level and
so you know, managing people,right, I always think that my people
are basically a shadow of me,right, so I'm responsible how they look
reflect on me. And that's theway I look at it at Westbanco too.
(16:44):
It's just a great concept when youcan think about management versus leadership.
Managing has always just and it seemsas time has gone on, management has
become more of a word I don'tlike, versus leader or coach, I
would agree, And coaching to meis it's where you're really you're helping your
employees. You think about football coachesand folks we've had. I was a
wrestler and how important those coaches andcamps and things you went to that someone
(17:08):
wanted to help you and train you. But so I think that fits into
the whole leadership angle. What elsefrom a servant leadership? But how else
would you describe your leadership stone whatyou're hoping to do here at West BANKO.
Well, for me, it's alwaysabout keeping the open door. I'm
always communicating with employees. I'm alwayson the phone talking to somebody, And
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it's also about telling people that dida good job right. So I always
try to reach out to people,and I even ask my leaders give me
names of people that I can call. Maybe I don't know them in the
organization, but I want to tellthem, hey, thank you for doing
this or that. That's the kindof lead leadership in the kut and culture
we want to have is where wepraise people for doing a great job,
we really want to also give thema career path too. Right. I'm
(17:51):
speaking tomorrow at our Women's Leadership Forum, and you know, part of my
message is, you know, howdo you develop your career And part of
it is you've got to own ityourself too, right. But then also
listen and also make sure you observe, and then you know, think about
seeking out those mentors that you wantto talk to you and make sure they
(18:12):
help you with your career. Right. Everybody got somewhere with having a good
mentor or a good advisor, ora good friend, parent, brother,
or sister, And so to me, I think it's talking to people that
building their network out and also talkingto other leaders in other groups, other
areas not even related to your area, because they may have some good insight
(18:32):
that you may not be aware of. Yeah, I'm going to take you
down the mentor road here in justa second, but I want to make
it make sure I take time toplug your support of our leadership programs.
One of the things when I goton staff with Kurt Zindi, our president,
I said, I think where chambershave got to go more of is
helping in leadership training, all kindsof training to help educate workforces and companies
(18:53):
so that they see value in theirmembership with us, not just us taking
money. And let's have a fewdrinks. Let's train people and make our
entire workforce better. And you allhave jumped right in with us on our
Live to Lead, which will comeback again in every February, and our
Athena Awards. The first time wewere able to bring that, and apparently
that might have been the first onein the state of West Virginia. So
(19:15):
thank you very much for getting behindus on those endeavors. We appreciate it
absolutely, No, it's really important. Leadership is can't be taught enough,
and I think people can always learnno matter where they are or who they
are and what level. So foryour life, Jeff, family members,
professors, mentors, coaches, Arethere a couple of folks that just kind
(19:36):
of stand out that you're like,yeah, boy, if it wasn't for
that person, I may have whoknows what might have happened or what are
a story or two in that regardof people that have really been mentors to
you. Well, first I'll startwith my wife. I mean, she's
a leadership coach, and so she'sbeen really helpful throughout my career, that's
all. I'm just great to bounceoff different ideas and things. Have been
(19:57):
a great supporter for us to No, she's just been fantastic. So I
can't say enough about her. Okay, So I'll stop for a second.
How did you meet? We metat work? You mentioned that earlier in
Atlanta. We were both working forIBM Global Financing in the same office,
and that's how we met, andI was back. We started dating in
ninety six, nineteen ninety six.Yeah, I'm one of those strange,
(20:18):
weird guys that can say I've marriedup twice. So it sounds like maybe
you did too, don't Yeah?Absolutely absolutely, Okay, So we have
Ronn Renee with in that leadership mentorwho else might we might we know about?
For you? You know? Forme, I think it was also
the president of First Horizon who sawsomething in me once again. I was
(20:40):
in Chattanooga and he promoted me tomarket president and then saw that we were
doing incredibly well there for a smallmarket actually for First Horizon, and gave
me the opportunity to go to Floridaand run my own region and just always
encouraged me. It was always verypositive and always looked at ways the way
I do is how to make peopleeven more successful, right, invest the
(21:02):
time, give them the feedback,give them the tools, and watch them
run. And that's the way I'vealways looked at things as well. And
so he was a great mentor tome, and you know, gave me
several opportunities along the way. Well, I know you mentioned the part earlier
about when positions were eliminated that hadto be pretty tough. Any other tough
things along the way that you're likethat gave me a great lesson in life,
(21:25):
or that you could that you couldapply or have been applying throughout your
life. I think everybody runs intotougher issues, right, I mean I
can't think of a specific one,not to say I don't have ups and
downs every day, right right?Well, yeah, but you know,
I think there are certain I thinkeverybody can look in their life and say,
there are monumental issues that happen sometimesunforeseen, most of the time I
(21:48):
unforeseen, right, And it's reallyhow you get through them right and understanding,
you know, because you can letthese things sit on you forever and
Unfortunately, you know, you gotyour parents and your spouse, and you
know that they care for you andthey want you to do better. But
until you say, hey, look, I gotta get passes, I gotta
do something else, or I hadto make a change, or I've got
to do X y Z, Idon't think you ever are really going to
(22:11):
move to the next level. Sofor me, it's been just a slow,
you know, grind when these thingshappen of hey, all right,
it's terrible that that's happened, ButI'm gonna move forward. I'm gonna go
do the next thing, and bythe way, I'm gonna be even better
than I was before. And that'sthe way I've always looked. I want
to win. I want my teamsto win. And so, you know,
you go through life and you figureout things you did wrong, but
(22:32):
then there's a lot of great thingsthat you do to win. And I'm
always a person that looks at,hey, let's look at the positives.
If we understand you're gonna have afew losses, but you're gonna have a
lot more wins that you're gonna havelosses, And how do you continue to
replicate that? Well, even thelosses are the tough times. It's that
resiliency of how you react, andto me, leadership training that includes that
(22:53):
in it is hugely important. Howam I going to react? And I
have a sixteen year old daughter talkedto about that. I said, you're
going to have this happened to you, that happened to you. What is
your reaction going to be? That'swhat you control. You can't control that
someone didn't select you for this,or isn't it gonna let you do this,
or took you out of this,or you know, if you're in
(23:14):
a workforce and you get laid off, whatever it is. But what you
do control is how you will reactto it absolutely and to me, that's
the resiliency part. Without it outwithout a doubt. Well, thinking about
you know, living in America,it's about second and third chances, right,
So even though you know one ofthe hardest times was being let go,
there are plenty of other financial institutionsthat I knew I was going to
(23:34):
get in with and I was goingto work incredibly hard and incredibly smart to
be really successful. So the nexttime down the road, you know,
they can't leave without me. Mmhmm, yeah, you're listening to CEOs,
you should know I'm your host,Mike Howard with the Wheeling Area Chamber
of Commerce. We're in studio todaywith Jeff Jackson, the CEO of West
(23:55):
Banco. Jeff, one of myfavorite closing questions is to take my guests
back. And I stole this fromI say this at every show. I
stole this from a guy I helpedget his own radio show and podcast going.
I said, Kevin, I'm goingto take that from you. Is
the question of going back to sayyour high school or even your college,
whatever it was, you are nowgoing to be the commencement speaker. You
(24:17):
know, what is one or twothings that you want to make sure you
get across to those young folks beforethey either head to college if they're coming
out of high school, or theyhead heading to the workforce. I would
say number one is surround yourself withpeople smarter than you and learn from them
and try to build out mentors.Understanding that you're going to learn a lot.
(24:41):
And I would say it's tough backin when you're graduate high school,
graduate college because you feel like,all right, I earned this degree,
I earned that degree. I mustknow a lot, right, and as
you and I know, there's alot to know what you don't know.
There's a lot to learn in thisworld. I'm still learning, and so
I would just say, surround yourselfwith smart people, successful people, and
(25:02):
try to understand what they're doing.Right. So, find the four or
five people that you feel like orin your field or just successful, and
say talk to them and say whatmade you successful? What did you do
in your life? Because a lotof times they'll invest time in you and
give you tips or even opportunities thatyou wouldn't even see. The second thing
I would suggest, and I thinkit's tough for everybody at times, is
(25:23):
believe in yourself. Right, beton yourself. If you're in a situation,
you're at a workplace, or you'rein an environment that you don't like,
you don't have to stay in that. Look around. There's great opportunities
put yourself in the best position tobe successful. I think sometimes people believe
things will change, and sometimes theydo. But other times, I think
you've got to own your career.You've got to own your development. Nobody
(25:45):
else is going to advocate more thanyou for yourself, and so to be
constantly pushing your development your career.Making sure you're in the right spot in
your current environment, but also toget you where you want to be down
the road. I think is incrediblyand I think it's really on you to
do that. I'm gonna throw ineven just one more so this will be
(26:06):
the closer closer question. That's finebecause it just kind of hit me you
being new to the area bringing inexperience from all over West Banco has been
here for a while. What whatcan the valley and the regions of the
one hundred ninety five branch areas thatyou're in. What do you think they're
gonna see from a Jeff Jackson CEOWest Banco? What are we gonna see
(26:29):
three to five years from now?And I'm not saying you have to look
into your crystal ball and tell ushow great the stock's going to be any
of that. What's that gonna looklike? Do you think in three to
five years? What do you wantWest Banco to look like in three to
five years because of your coming here. I think it'll be a larger bank,
expanding south Okay. I think it'llbe a great place to work that
(26:51):
we're always trying to make it evenbetter okay, and I think we'll continue
to win awards at being one ofthe best places to work, one of
the best banks in the country.I think it's really going to be a
place where people can develop their careera very open environment to where we're all
together, we're winning together, we'reall talking about issues together, and we're
backing each other up saying how dowe fix this? How do we make
(27:12):
things better? Right? Yeah?You know, for me, it's when
we look at trying to win customers. I was at lunch today and we
were talking about a deal we're tryingto win and a great customer and you
know, different issues we're working on. But at the end of the day,
I said, look, I don'tknow how to solve all these issues,
but I know this is a customerwe want a bank and we need
(27:33):
to figure it out. Yeah,And that's how I think we'll be going
forward, is there's gonna be alot of issues we'll face and we're going
to figure it out and we're goingto be successful moving forward. Well,
I think that's a great angle andanswer. Being a sales guy myself for
many many years that even though thebank is getting larger, some people say
well, that's going to make themless personal. It doesn't sound like that's
the case for you all. You'restill going to look at each individual deal
(27:53):
and each individual client to try tohelp them the best you can. Oh.
Absolutely, we want to keep thatcommunity bank. To me, that's
our secret sauce of where we provideexceptional customer service. You know me,
I know you. We'll take careof you and really give you those that
great customer service and those great productsthat a lot of big banks offer,
we can offer them as well.Well, it sounds like this might be
(28:15):
more than just a podcast someday,maybe a little recruitment piece right for people
to hear what West Banco's like andgonna be like. Absolutely, absolutely,
We're always looking to attract new talentand that's one of our key themes of
our company is how do we continueto grow and attract great people to our
company. So anyone that hears thisand is out there, keep your eyes
on West Banco and what's happening right. Absolutely, Jeff, we appreciate it.
(28:37):
Jeff Jackson, CEO of West Banco, has been our guest on CEOs.
You should know. I'm your host. Mike Howard from the Wheeling Area
Chamber of Commerce. We are sponsoredby West Banco and West Virginia Northern Community
College. Jeff, thank you somuch for your time telling us your story
and down the road. Maybe we'lldo it again and see what's changed.
That'd be great. Thanks for havingme and I really appreciate today. It's
(28:59):
been great, no problem until RonnaRenee. We said hello, Well,
how can I let her in here? Sure she would love to come.
Thanks again for listening to CEOs.You should know we'll see you next time.
Well, welcome to CEOs. Youshould know. I am your host,
Mike Howard, Vice President of Membership, Education and Events at the Wheeling Area
Chamber of Commerce. We are happyto be the promoter of CEOs you should
know. With our partners at iHeartRadio Wheeling, we are sponsored by West
Banco and West Virginia Northern Community College. In studio today is the brand new
(00:41):
CEO of West Banco. Speaking ofWest Banco, mister Jeff Jackson, Jeff,
welcome to CEOs you should know.Hey, good afternoon, Thanks for
having me. Glad to get youin here so we can hear the story
of what in the world brought youto Wheeling, West Virginia. Well,
you know that's a great question forme obviously. Uh. When I was
(01:02):
sitting in Memphis and I was arecruiter found me and started describing the opportunity
of West Banco. I'd only beento West Virginia one time. Six years
ago. I came down to wheartonWest Virginia. A good friend of mine
was getting married. Never been toWest Virginia, you go, And so,
as I tell people from Wharton,I said, I uh went to
(01:23):
the wedding at Williams country club,ate at DJ's, went to the holiday
and bar and stayed right there anduh got a good taste of Wharton six
years ago. So that was reallymy only experience with West Virginia prior to
uh, you know, looking atthis job, and uh, once I
started hearing about West Banco and understandingtheir strong foundation and then really the people.
(01:44):
So for me, I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and when I look
around here in Wheeling, it's verysimilar, very similar background, very similar
topography, people, culture, justgood hearted people that want to do the
best they can. And so forme looking at this opportunity, when I
started with First Tennessee Bank in twothousand and nine, it was a very
similar size bank, great culture,both cultures really match each other. You
(02:07):
had long tenured employees. I meanwe still have, believe it or not.
There's a couple of people in ourmaintenance area over in Cincinnati. They're
eighty years old and they still workfor us. Bill Ward, that's a
strong culture that we try to provideour employees. Yeah, well that's a
great West Virginia baptism story. Justto break into the mountaineer way, hup
(02:28):
and weird, and that's exactly.No, the whole community has been incredibly
welcoming to me and my wife andmy daughter who's a senior at Lensley,
and so it's just been a reallygreat experience for us. Yeah. I
have met your wife. We've beeninvolved with her with leadership Wheeling, and
she was telling us a lot abouthow you all see these similarities between us
and Chattanooga. And I'm kind oflike, if we can get halfway to
(02:49):
where Chattanooga is in the valley,we'll be doing pretty good. I would
agree. I would agree. Butyou know, Wheeling is very similar to
Chattanooga. When I grew up,the downtown was starting to get transformed,
a lot of new buildings going on, a lot of new enterprises coming to
Wheeling in West Virginia. So it'sit feels like Chattanooga. And when I
when I was a kid, wereyou raised there? I raised? Oh,
okay, I was, well,that's yeah. I have a brother
(03:13):
who got smart. He was apilot for Delta retired now was visiting some
friends in Chattanooga and decided to buya boat and found out if you put
the boat in the water in Tennesseeand declare that he's residents. He'd save
a heck of a lot of taxes, and so he doesn't have to pay
taxes on his house in Georgia,and so he's technically a Tennessee resident.
It pays for the boat. Yeah, for sure, Tennessee has a,
(03:34):
like I said, a lot ofsimilarities to West Virginia. Low tax is
very pro business, very forward looking. Yeah, on where they want to
be. Oh yeah. I dida couple of years in Nashville and saw
that this was many years ago withHyatt Hotels and loved it. And I
visited him in Chattanooga and we talkedabout Tennessee a lot. My wife's favorite
thing to watch is this lady thatdoes cavapoo dogs and we watch we're watching
(03:57):
these dogs. I'm sure I'm gonnaend up with a cavapoo pretty soon.
Okay, we're talking with Jeff Jackson, the CEO of West Banco and Jeff,
you have been here how long now? A little over a year.
My family moved here August first lastyear, just in time for the school
year to start. Okay, soback in the day in Chattanooga, I'm
assuming you know, grade school,junior high, high school, what were
your interests in high school sports,activities, clubs, anything like that.
(04:20):
What would you like the people toknow. Oh, sure, I played
a lot of sports, played footballand basketball during different part periods of that.
Went to public high school and playedfootball there and golf all right the
last couple couple of years, andthen after that went to Auburn University.
That was gonna be my next question. Okay, so you're a that's the
(04:40):
Tigers, right, it is.It is the Tigers that also yelled war
eagle as the world cry, butthey have an eagle that flies on the
field. Yeah. I have aMy college roommate for the four years until
he went, and then that's wherehe went was too. He was always
his last year he was always yellingwar. He's like, what are you
doing? That's where I'm going.I'm going to Auburn for grad school.
Engineer. Very successful, so goodschool from what I hear. So how
(05:01):
was that experience for you at Auburn? Was it much different than being in
Chattanooga? Definitely it was. It'sa big school, you know, and
everything in that town is related aroundthe school, and so it was a
great experience. But when I graduatedfrom there, you know, the economy
was really in a bad shape.So I was fortunate enough to get a
job as a supplemental employee with IBMGlobal Financing. Okay, and so when
(05:23):
people hear that, that was basically, if you think about G capital maybe
back in the ninety some sort ofcaptive finance company, that's what IBM Global
Financing was, but really for IBMcustomers and other technology customers. And so
I was hired on supplemental. Istill have my first actual offer letter.
I was paid ten ninety an hourand I was eligible for overtime, and
I was really excited to have theopportunity. That's great. So tell me
(05:46):
you didn't change your major three timeslike I did when you were in college.
I just changed it once one time. I want to be a doctor.
I sat in chemistry and then realized, wow, this is really difficult.
I'm not sure I could do severalmore years of that. So but
I moved over to business and foundthat more to my likening for things I'm
better at. I guess you naturallymoved to things you like and you do
better than others. But originally thoughtI was going to be a doctor.
(06:09):
Well, you know, we needdoctors we need bankers, we need all
of them. And I'm glad youfound the one that you were looking for,
and we're glad you're here in theHigh Valley. This is great.
So experiences in college, what maybeelse happened that made you think about where
you were going to be heading professors, any folks like that that that might
have steered you ledga that you're like, yeah, that person really had an
(06:31):
influence on me in college. Youknow it was I'd say it was so
long ago, Well there is that, but no, there was. I
think you know, the one thingcollege really brings to light for people is
you know, you're no longer livingwith your parents for the most part,
you're no longer under their roof.And for me, it was a time
(06:53):
for me to say, hey,look it's it's all me right. It's
go to the good or the bad, or the highs and the low.
And I think that everybody at somepoint realizes that in life, and for
me that was when like, look, everything I do going forward is really
me right, and what I domy actions, I have to own everything.
And I think that was also thetime in my life one of the
(07:14):
times where you know you have thehighs and the lows right, and so
you know, you get a low, and I remember sitting there thinking about
one of the lower times and thinking, look, I can sit here and
let this hit on me for thenext months, years, weeks, or
I can say, hey, lookit is what it is. I got
to move forward. I got tofigure out a path for the future and
(07:34):
positively move my life forward. Andso I think that was one of the
times in my life that you know, they say, you know, negative
things make you stronger, but Ithink it also makes you change the way
you think, and it brings outthings in you you may not have known
that you had. The old sayingthat which does not kill us make us
stronger. Is is still apropos today, I believe. So after IBM Corporate
(07:56):
Global Finance, I think you said, what was kind of the progression there
into the more banking world. Iguess, yeah, sure. So just
real quick on the IBM Glow Financing. You know, I was hired in
June, I was twenty one yearsold, and then I worked really hard,
got it hired on full time,and then thought I'd made it back
in March the next year, andso I was really excited about that I
(08:18):
met my wife at IBM Glow Financingand we both moved up to New York
and Connecticut. So we went upthere, lived up there for five years.
I was up there when nine toeleven happened. We just had our
son. We were not working inthe city, but we were working,
you know, about twenty miles outsidethe city, and so at that point
we kind of took another step andsaid, you know, is this the
(08:39):
life we want to live? Right? We were commuting forty miles each way,
we had a young child, andwe really well, we had friends
there, obviously, no family,no support and so fortunately my wife was
able to get a job at UnimInsurance in Chattanooga and they let me work
from home. So I got towork out of my house for seven years
as basically like a commercial banker butserving the southeast Tennessee. So I traveled
(09:03):
a lot, went out making salescalls things like that, while my wife
was able to work in Chattanooga,and we had our daughter at that point
too, and so it just madeit easier. All my families from Chattanooga,
so we had a support system therethat really helped. And then when
did you end up? You mentionedMemphis, right. Actually I started with
First Tennessee, which is now Firstarising in October, okay, two thousand
(09:28):
and nine. So one of thekey points, you know, if I
look back at some of the setbacksand things that make its stronger, as
I talked about, you know,in two thousand and nine, IBM Global
Financing decided to shut down my wholedivision. Oh well, I was let
go. Another fifty sixty people werelet go just in my group, right,
And so that was a real bigsetback of you know, I was
one of the top producing people there, but you know, it was a
(09:52):
big setback and I had to reevaluateeverything. I remember my wife, she
was fortunate to make our President's trip. So I'm in Disney World on my
first day leaving IBM, walking aroundDisney World and we're just chatting and saying,
you know, this first time sinceprobably I was fourteen years old,
I didn't have a job, andso it's a different feeling o me.
But you know, it's a goodtime to basically reflect and say where do
(10:13):
I want my life to be andhow do I get there and how do
I do it? And so fromthere I kind of took the summer off,
did some training and different things,but was fortunate enough to have some
good friends that worked at First TennesseeBank at the time, and then started
with them as a commercial banker inOctober of two thousand and nine. Okay,
so how long did that last?So I progressed through in different roles
(10:37):
and became market president in twenty sixteen. And then one of my great mentors
and boss came to me and said, hey, we just bought a bank.
Once you go into Florida and runour entire bank. So in twenty
eighteen, I went to the stateof Florida, lived in Miami and also
in Naples, Florida, and reallybrought in the new bank into our culture,
(10:58):
did a lot of hiring, alot of person issues, and really
built out a business across South Florida. And so I was there for two
years. Then our bank did amerger of equals with another bank, and
so at that point I was promotedto go to Memphis to be the chief
operating officer. Okay, back toTennessee. Back to Tennessee, but the
other side of the state. Andthat's what I was kind of getting at.
(11:18):
What is that you've been to Connecticutfor I mean, we know the
difference is north south Tennessee is along state that east west six hour whatever
difference that or even more, Iguess what was that like? It was
really different, I mean somewhere insome respects. But you know, on
the Memphis the far west point,it's very flat. It's on the Mississippi
River, which is probably four tofive times wider than the Ohio River.
(11:41):
Here it's a working river, soyou're not getting people out boating. I
mean, it is a dark,vicious river that has a lot of barge
traffic yep on it, and thepeople are all great over in Memphis as
well, but just different, differenttypes of cultures. And it's really I
think all the movie Rounds really helpedme as well understand different types of cultures
within state cities, locations. Sothen getting to wheeling from let's talk about
(12:07):
first from the professional side, whatdo you see different about your role now
versus a couple of these others youhave had. Obviously I'm sure COVID has
made a change in that a littlebit, especially with hiring remote working all
that. What are the similarities andthe differences I guess you see here versus
the last job or two you've had. Sure, I think one obviously being
the CEO, you're responsible for everything, I mean, everything rolls to you.
(12:33):
And then you also you know,obviously report to the board, but
also have a big responsibility to shareholdersand investors, and so I do a
lot of discussions with both of thoseand the board of obviously trying to build
up our stock price, reassure investorsof our strength of our company, and
tell our story the same the samethings about my previous role in the current
(12:58):
role is I have to manage andbring in great talent. I have to
recruit, I have to promote,I have to set goals and really continue
with what I look at my leadershipstyle as of a servant leadership style of
where I every day I'm trying tothink, how do I make my people
better, how do I get themmore successful, how do I give them
the tools to really achieve their goals? How do I talk about their career?
(13:22):
And by the way, how doI bring in more people like them?
Right and as we grow. That'sone of my top items I'm looking
to do really at the top prioritiesis really bring in and retain top talent
because to me, I think alot of banks we can offer a lot
of similarities, but you can't offertop people, top service and really provide
a great place to work. Thepeople become the big difference, don't they
(13:43):
They do without it. Out you'relistening to CEOs, you should know.
I'm your host, Mike Howard fromthe Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce. We
are in studio with Jeff Jackson,the new CEO here at West Banco branch
numbers. How big are we talkingwith the bank now? Yeah, we're
seventeen and a half billion dollar bank, one hundred and ninety five branches.
Okay, that's more than I eventhought across six states. We actually operate
(14:07):
in eight states. We have loanproduction offices. We just opened up one
in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Some peopleI used to know, really great bankers,
we were able to bring them over. We also have a loan production
office in Indianapolis, Yanna as well. What are some of the I guess
differences you've seen over the years inthe banking things you might not have had
to think about even in your position, or if you had been CEO,
(14:30):
you know, twenty years ago,versus what you have to think about now
in the banking. Is it thelegal side, is it the financial the
interest rate. I'm always interested inhow things have changed for people and what
you got to think about now?Sure, well, I think I'll tell
you the things that haven't changed istaking care of your customers, taking care
of your employees, and taking careof your communities. Give the money back,
(14:52):
yeah, and given your time back. That's the stuff that hasn't changed.
I think sometimes banks can overlook,right, and so many of these
things. Yeah, absolutely, thoseare things we are really focused on.
It is taking care of our customers, employees, communities. I think some
of the things that have changed overthe last you know, six months,
two years. Obviously, interest ratesgoing up tremendously, right, and so
(15:13):
it's had a dramatic impact on allbanks. We had kind of a little
banking crisis, you know, afew months ago or a few banks unfortunately
went out of business. We werevery fortunate. We're in great shape financially
from our capital positions. But stillthat doesn't mean we don't look at making
sure we have the right deposits andmaking sure you know, we're really going
after deposits. It's also making surethat we're watching our capital levels and watching
(15:39):
all our loans, and we havegreat credit quality as well. So for
us, you know, things arealways heightened at times depending on the cycles
we go through, but we've gotgreat processes and people in place that it's
really makes it easy for me becauseof the great people I have looking over
all these things. Yeah, soat this point in many of my eos
(16:00):
you to know podcasts, I gointo the leadership style. You already brought
my favorite leadership phrase up servant leadership. Where do you think for you that
began to become a reality or understandingthat concept? You know? I think
for me, I've always been onteams, okay, so it's always been
how do I make our team bea winner? And we've won different things
(16:22):
in different teams through high school andother times in my life. But it's
also I think when you know,when you become that first manager level and
so you know, managing people,right, I always think that my people
are basically a shadow of me,right, so I'm responsible how they look
reflect on me. And that's theway I look at it at Westbanco too.
(16:44):
It's just a great concept when youcan think about management versus leadership.
Managing has always just and it seemsas time has gone on, management has
become more of a word I don'tlike, versus leader or coach, I
would agree, And coaching to meis it's where you're really you're helping your
employees. You think about football coachesand folks we've had. I was a
wrestler and how important those coaches andcamps and things you went to that someone
(17:08):
wanted to help you and train you. But so I think that fits into
the whole leadership angle. What elsefrom a servant leadership? But how else
would you describe your leadership stone whatyou're hoping to do here at West BANKO.
Well, for me, it's alwaysabout keeping the open door. I'm
always communicating with employees. I'm alwayson the phone talking to somebody, And
(17:30):
it's also about telling people that dida good job right. So I always
try to reach out to people,and I even ask my leaders give me
names of people that I can call. Maybe I don't know them in the
organization, but I want to tellthem, hey, thank you for doing
this or that. That's the kindof lead leadership in the kut and culture
we want to have is where wepraise people for doing a great job,
we really want to also give thema career path too. Right. I'm
(17:51):
speaking tomorrow at our Women's Leadership Forum, and you know, part of my
message is, you know, howdo you develop your career And part of
it is you've got to own ityourself too, right. But then also
listen and also make sure you observe, and then you know, think about
seeking out those mentors that you wantto talk to you and make sure they
(18:12):
help you with your career. Right. Everybody got somewhere with having a good
mentor or a good advisor, ora good friend, parent, brother,
or sister, And so to me, I think it's talking to people that
building their network out and also talkingto other leaders in other groups, other
areas not even related to your area, because they may have some good insight
(18:32):
that you may not be aware of. Yeah, I'm going to take you
down the mentor road here in justa second, but I want to make
it make sure I take time toplug your support of our leadership programs.
One of the things when I goton staff with Kurt Zindi, our president,
I said, I think where chambershave got to go more of is
helping in leadership training, all kindsof training to help educate workforces and companies
(18:53):
so that they see value in theirmembership with us, not just us taking
money. And let's have a fewdrinks. Let's train people and make our
entire workforce better. And you allhave jumped right in with us on our
Live to Lead, which will comeback again in every February, and our
Athena Awards. The first time wewere able to bring that, and apparently
that might have been the first onein the state of West Virginia. So
(19:15):
thank you very much for getting behindus on those endeavors. We appreciate it
absolutely, No, it's really important. Leadership is can't be taught enough,
and I think people can always learnno matter where they are or who they
are and what level. So foryour life, Jeff, family members,
professors, mentors, coaches, Arethere a couple of folks that just kind
(19:36):
of stand out that you're like,yeah, boy, if it wasn't for
that person, I may have whoknows what might have happened or what are
a story or two in that regardof people that have really been mentors to
you. Well, first I'll startwith my wife. I mean, she's
a leadership coach, and so she'sbeen really helpful throughout my career, that's
all. I'm just great to bounceoff different ideas and things. Have been
(19:57):
a great supporter for us to No, she's just been fantastic. So I
can't say enough about her. Okay, So I'll stop for a second.
How did you meet? We metat work? You mentioned that earlier in
Atlanta. We were both working forIBM Global Financing in the same office,
and that's how we met, andI was back. We started dating in
ninety six, nineteen ninety six.Yeah, I'm one of those strange,
(20:18):
weird guys that can say I've marriedup twice. So it sounds like maybe
you did too, don't Yeah?Absolutely absolutely, Okay, So we have
Ronn Renee with in that leadership mentorwho else might we might we know about?
For you? You know? Forme, I think it was also
the president of First Horizon who sawsomething in me once again. I was
(20:40):
in Chattanooga and he promoted me tomarket president and then saw that we were
doing incredibly well there for a smallmarket actually for First Horizon, and gave
me the opportunity to go to Floridaand run my own region and just always
encouraged me. It was always verypositive and always looked at ways the way
I do is how to make peopleeven more successful, right, invest the
(21:02):
time, give them the feedback,give them the tools, and watch them
run. And that's the way I'vealways looked at things as well. And
so he was a great mentor tome, and you know, gave me
several opportunities along the way. Well, I know you mentioned the part earlier
about when positions were eliminated that hadto be pretty tough. Any other tough
things along the way that you're likethat gave me a great lesson in life,
(21:25):
or that you could that you couldapply or have been applying throughout your
life. I think everybody runs intotougher issues, right, I mean I
can't think of a specific one,not to say I don't have ups and
downs every day, right right?Well, yeah, but you know,
I think there are certain I thinkeverybody can look in their life and say,
there are monumental issues that happen sometimesunforeseen, most of the time I
(21:48):
unforeseen, right, And it's reallyhow you get through them right and understanding,
you know, because you can letthese things sit on you forever and
Unfortunately, you know, you gotyour parents and your spouse, and you
know that they care for you andthey want you to do better. But
until you say, hey, look, I gotta get passes, I gotta
do something else, or I hadto make a change, or I've got
to do X y Z, Idon't think you ever are really going to
(22:11):
move to the next level. Sofor me, it's been just a slow,
you know, grind when these thingshappen of hey, all right,
it's terrible that that's happened, ButI'm gonna move forward. I'm gonna go
do the next thing, and bythe way, I'm gonna be even better
than I was before. And that'sthe way I've always looked. I want
to win. I want my teamsto win. And so, you know,
you go through life and you figureout things you did wrong, but
(22:32):
then there's a lot of great thingsthat you do to win. And I'm
always a person that looks at,hey, let's look at the positives.
If we understand you're gonna have afew losses, but you're gonna have a
lot more wins that you're gonna havelosses, And how do you continue to
replicate that? Well, even thelosses are the tough times. It's that
resiliency of how you react, andto me, leadership training that includes that
(22:53):
in it is hugely important. Howam I going to react? And I
have a sixteen year old daughter talkedto about that. I said, you're
going to have this happened to you, that happened to you. What is
your reaction going to be? That'swhat you control. You can't control that
someone didn't select you for this,or isn't it gonna let you do this,
or took you out of this,or you know, if you're in
(23:14):
a workforce and you get laid off, whatever it is. But what you
do control is how you will reactto it absolutely and to me, that's
the resiliency part. Without it outwithout a doubt. Well, thinking about
you know, living in America,it's about second and third chances, right,
So even though you know one ofthe hardest times was being let go,
there are plenty of other financial institutionsthat I knew I was going to
(23:34):
get in with and I was goingto work incredibly hard and incredibly smart to
be really successful. So the nexttime down the road, you know,
they can't leave without me. Mmhmm, yeah, you're listening to CEOs,
you should know I'm your host,Mike Howard with the Wheeling Area Chamber
of Commerce. We're in studio todaywith Jeff Jackson, the CEO of West
(23:55):
Banco. Jeff, one of myfavorite closing questions is to take my guests
back. And I stole this fromI say this at every show. I
stole this from a guy I helpedget his own radio show and podcast going.
I said, Kevin, I'm goingto take that from you. Is
the question of going back to sayyour high school or even your college,
whatever it was, you are nowgoing to be the commencement speaker. You
(24:17):
know, what is one or twothings that you want to make sure you
get across to those young folks beforethey either head to college if they're coming
out of high school, or theyhead heading to the workforce. I would
say number one is surround yourself withpeople smarter than you and learn from them
and try to build out mentors.Understanding that you're going to learn a lot.
(24:41):
And I would say it's tough backin when you're graduate high school,
graduate college because you feel like,all right, I earned this degree,
I earned that degree. I mustknow a lot, right, and as
you and I know, there's alot to know what you don't know.
There's a lot to learn in thisworld. I'm still learning, and so
I would just say, surround yourselfwith smart people, successful people, and
(25:02):
try to understand what they're doing.Right. So, find the four or
five people that you feel like orin your field or just successful, and
say talk to them and say whatmade you successful? What did you do
in your life? Because a lotof times they'll invest time in you and
give you tips or even opportunities thatyou wouldn't even see. The second thing
I would suggest, and I thinkit's tough for everybody at times, is
(25:23):
believe in yourself. Right, beton yourself. If you're in a situation,
you're at a workplace, or you'rein an environment that you don't like,
you don't have to stay in that. Look around. There's great opportunities
put yourself in the best position tobe successful. I think sometimes people believe
things will change, and sometimes theydo. But other times, I think
you've got to own your career.You've got to own your development. Nobody
(25:45):
else is going to advocate more thanyou for yourself, and so to be
constantly pushing your development your career.Making sure you're in the right spot in
your current environment, but also toget you where you want to be down
the road. I think is incrediblyand I think it's really on you to
do that. I'm gonna throw ineven just one more so this will be
(26:06):
the closer closer question. That's finebecause it just kind of hit me you
being new to the area bringing inexperience from all over West Banco has been
here for a while. What whatcan the valley and the regions of the
one hundred ninety five branch areas thatyou're in. What do you think they're
gonna see from a Jeff Jackson CEOWest Banco? What are we gonna see
(26:29):
three to five years from now?And I'm not saying you have to look
into your crystal ball and tell ushow great the stock's going to be any
of that. What's that gonna looklike? Do you think in three to
five years? What do you wantWest Banco to look like in three to
five years because of your coming here. I think it'll be a larger bank,
expanding south Okay. I think it'llbe a great place to work that
(26:51):
we're always trying to make it evenbetter okay, and I think we'll continue
to win awards at being one ofthe best places to work, one of
the best banks in the country.I think it's really going to be a
place where people can develop their careera very open environment to where we're all
together, we're winning together, we'reall talking about issues together, and we're
backing each other up saying how dowe fix this? How do we make
(27:12):
things better? Right? Yeah?You know, for me, it's when
we look at trying to win customers. I was at lunch today and we
were talking about a deal we're tryingto win and a great customer and you
know, different issues we're working on. But at the end of the day,
I said, look, I don'tknow how to solve all these issues,
but I know this is a customerwe want a bank and we need
(27:33):
to figure it out. Yeah,And that's how I think we'll be going
forward, is there's gonna be alot of issues we'll face and we're going
to figure it out and we're goingto be successful moving forward. Well,
I think that's a great angle andanswer. Being a sales guy myself for
many many years that even though thebank is getting larger, some people say
well, that's going to make themless personal. It doesn't sound like that's
the case for you all. You'restill going to look at each individual deal
(27:53):
and each individual client to try tohelp them the best you can. Oh.
Absolutely, we want to keep thatcommunity bank. To me, that's
our secret sauce of where we provideexceptional customer service. You know me,
I know you. We'll take careof you and really give you those that
great customer service and those great productsthat a lot of big banks offer,
we can offer them as well.Well, it sounds like this might be
(28:15):
more than just a podcast someday,maybe a little recruitment piece right for people
to hear what West Banco's like andgonna be like. Absolutely, absolutely,
We're always looking to attract new talentand that's one of our key themes of
our company is how do we continueto grow and attract great people to our
company. So anyone that hears thisand is out there, keep your eyes
on West Banco and what's happening right. Absolutely, Jeff, we appreciate it.
(28:37):
Jeff Jackson, CEO of West Banco, has been our guest on CEOs.
You should know. I'm your host. Mike Howard from the Wheeling Area
Chamber of Commerce. We are sponsoredby West Banco and West Virginia Northern Community
College. Jeff, thank you somuch for your time telling us your story
and down the road. Maybe we'lldo it again and see what's changed.
That'd be great. Thanks for havingme and I really appreciate today. It's
(28:59):
been great, no problem until RonnaRenee. We said hello, Well,
how can I let her in here? Sure she would love to come.
Thanks again for listening to CEOs.You should know we'll see you next time.
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