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Sherri Pitcher
Senior Vice President and Chief LifeDesign Officer, Fidelity Bank
Age: 50
Industry experience: 2 years
Just a few years ago, Sherri Pitcher had never considered working at a bank. While managing economic development for the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Pitcher got to know Fidelity Bank Chairman and CEO Edward Manzi Jr. and bank president Christopher McCarthy. The bank’s “LifeDesign” mission resonated with the longtime sales and marketing professional, and two years ago she joined Leominster-based Fidelity to work in business development. This fall, the $1 billion-asset bank created her new role: Chief LifeDesign officer.
Q: What is LifeDesign?
A: LifeDesign is really our bank’s mission. We think it’s truly unique to Fidelity Bank. It’s part of our culture. It’s a thread that’s woven throughout the organization, and it really connects us all. It’s a promise that we make to our clients, to the communities that we serve and to each other. At its basic level, LifeDesign is treating each other with care and respect.
Q: What does LifeDesign look like?
A: You can view it from essentially three pillars: how it affects our clients, our coworkers and the community. If there’s a client in need of a product and we can’t create a solution, we might refer them to another bank because we want them to have the best solution. A lot of times that recommendation might not be in our best interest, but it’s in [the client’s] best interest. Everyone who joins the bank goes through LifeDesign training.
We also collaborate with [Dudley-based] Nichols College and offer employees the opportunity to participate in LifeDesign University. It’s a project–based curriculum. Right now, two different groups are enrolled in this year’s LDU class. One is working on updating our intranet, and the other is working on LifeDesign and the systemization. Then in the community we have our LifeDesign Community Dividend. We invest in a lot of nonprofit organizations, including the Shine Initiative, a nonprofit that the bank started over 10 years ago that focuses on mental health and wellness.
Q: How else does LifeDesign affect Fidelity’s employees?
A: On Fridays, Ed sends out High Fives, awards that allow people to express appreciation and thanks for things other coworkers have done, whether it’s showing care and respect or taking care of our clients. We also have some unique ways we together work as a team and interact with our clients and the community. Since we opened our new branch in downtown Worcester about a year ago, we’ve been doing “Who Cares?” days throughout the communities that we serve. People from the bank are going out to a local coffee shop and just buying people coffee; we’ve gone into barber shops and bought people haircuts; we’ve bought people movie theater tickets or bought them lunch. It’s going out and doing these random acts of caring throughout the community.
Even though so many banks are focusing on digital – and that’s an area that we continue to invest in because we know that’s important for people to be able to bank remotely – we also think people will continue to value personal relationships. So, we’re expanding how we use the space in our branches. We have a LifeDesign workshop series. We offered yoga classes here in our downtown Worcester branch and have done more banking workshops, including a cybersecurity workshop we just did.
Q: How did Fidelity Bank become involved with LifeDesign?
A: The bank has been around for over 130 years, so a lot of it was from the discipline of our leaders when the bank was started. Over the years, it evolved into an advisory culture and then eventually it evolved into LifeDesign. The culture has been there, and we started calling it LifeDesign back in 2003.
Q: Why did Fidelity Bank create the chief LifeDesign officer role?
A: It shows how important LifeDesign is and how much a part of our culture it is here at the bank. We decided it was a good time for us to develop a more systemized approach to how it is applied because we wanted to make sure we were delivering it consistently throughout the organization, especially as we grow. Last year we merged with a small bank out of Gardner, Colonial Cooperative Bank, and this year we’re merging with another bank, Family Federal Savings, that’s based out of Fitchburg with three branches. These banks chose us because of LifeDesign, so we really feel that’s an example of how it is resonating in the market.
Q: What is your favorite part of the job?
A: The opportunity to interact with the community in some fun and unique ways. I’ve been really involved in Worcester through a lot of the work that I’ve done on boards and with nonprofits: the EcoTarium, the Worcester Art Museum, the United Way Women’s Initiative. I can expand that work through our LifeDesign Dividend and go out and do fun things.
We have an ice cream truck – that’s a cool thing too. In the summer months, we bring the truck to clients’ offices, different community events, police stations, fire stations, different places throughout the communities that we serve and give out ice cream. That’s really fun. Driving the ice cream truck is something I never thought I would do.
Pitcher’s 5 Favorite Things About Central Massachusetts
- Tight-knit, collaborative, supportive and caring business community
- Amazing arts & cultural amenities
- Fantastic location: So much to do and close to Boston and Providence
- Diverse population and economy
- Worcester’s renaissance
