Jack McGeorge
Title: CEO and chairman, Needham Bank
Age: 68
Experience: 40; 36 with Needham Bank
A transplant to New England, Needham Bank CEO and chairman Jack McGeorge speaks with a soft Texas accent at an easygoing pace. He’s also a dyed-in-the-wool community banker. McGeorge began his banking career on the teller line while studying business management at Texas Tech University. Upon graduating in 1972, he moved to Massachusetts to join Pioneer Cooperative Bank. He joined what was then Needham Cooperative Bank as an assistant treasurer in 1976, and in 2004, became president and CEO. Recently, he sat down with Banker & Tradesman to talk about what his “large small bank” has planned for the New Year.
Q: So what’s new at Needham Bank? What’s ahead for 2013?
A: We’ve hired a number of key people in various areas. We’ve hired some support staff. We’ve hired one originator, and we intend to hire a number more. Our construction lending, we have added people there: team leaders, an executive vice president of commercial lending and finance, a research and development gentleman, and others. Very experienced, savvy bankers.
One of the people we’ve hired is Laura Dorfman [senior vice president, residential lending], who is setting up a full-blown secondary residential market where a customer can come into us now and their path can be bifurcated. Their loan could be eligible to be sold on the secondary market, or it could go into portfolio lending.
We also purchased some land along this block here down Garden Street, which is significant. We don’t need to move 10 miles away and set up places. We have everything within arm’s reach for meetings and conferences and team-building exercises.
Q: Is that new for you, selling loans on the secondary market?
A: It is new. We have always been historically a portfolio lender. It’s tough to be competitive in a lower-interest environment if you’re a portfolio lender, as you’re putting some very low-interest rate products on your balance sheet that will never leave your balance sheet unless you pull them together and sell them.
We relish portfolio products. It’s just we want both products. In a down market, it’s hard to be a portfolio lender and be really competitive because there are organizations that are giving really low rates because that’s in the market.
Q: Tell us more about the new addition you’re building out back.
A: We purchased two buildings, which we razed. The new building will be 7,500 square feet: 3,750 square feet [each] in first and second floors. It’s going to house our lending area and support staff underwriting.
And then recently, we purchased another building that has a lot with it. Once we get this built, we’re probably going to have to build a satellite building down at our second acquisition. We’re adding people, we’re growing, and I like to have people in a close proximity.
We did a land swap with the town where, in order to have this building abut our main office building here, the town is getting over 80 additional parking spaces and a very attractive pedestrian walkway. It’s a way of improving the downtown and still having the commercial atmosphere, but it’s more pedestrian friendly, in that you can walk around and shop and not have to walk through a busy intersection. It’s all going to be very aesthetically pleasing.
Q: I think it’s interesting that you mention parking spaces as key to improving the commercial atmosphere downtown.
A: Well, there’s no two-story or three-story parking garage in Needham Center. That’s just not gonna happen. So, to create 80 additional spaces, that’s significant. And plus, when we’re off working hours, they have more parking spaces available to them.
This abuts a residential area, so you’re not going to have a moonscape here. We’ll have natural plantings, something that’s still a parking lot, but it’s going to be as attractive as a parking lot can be. We don’t compromise anything. We don’t compromise the residential area, we don’t compromise ourselves and we don’t compromise the local businesspeople.
This is a major investment in the downtown. The better the businesses do, the better we do. It goes hand in hand. This is how we share. We share our values and we share our dollars.
Jack McGeorge’s Five Favorite Needham Restaurants (in no particular order):
- Petit Robert
- Rice Barn
- Bagels Best
- Acorn’s Bakery and Café
- Sweet Corner Bakery
