Peter Brown
President and CEO, Dedham Savings Bank
Age: 64
Industry experience: 41 years
When Dedham Savings Bank President and CEO Peter Brown became chair of the Massachusetts Bankers Association in July, he followed in the footsteps of Dedham Savings’ previous two leaders, who also spent time as board chair for the state’s banking trade group. Brown’s priorities during his one-year term include rolling out a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative and continuing to support Kathleen Murphy, who became the association’s president and CEO last year following the retirement of longtime leader, Dan Forte.
After starting his career at BayBank, Brown got into community banking at Lexington Savings Bank, which was acquired by U.S. Trust and then Citizens Bank. Brown, who worked in commercial lending, eventually got back into community banking at Everett-based Eagle Bank before becoming president of Walpole Co-operative Bank. A couple of years later, the top role opened up at one of Walpole Co-operative’s direct competitors, and Brown became CEO and president of Dedham Savings Bank in 2009. The bank now has $1.8 billion in assets.
Q: What did it mean to you to be named chair of the Massachusetts Bankers Association board?
A: To me, it’s a rite of passage to go on the board of Mass. Bankers and then ultimately to become the chairperson. It’s a little bit of frosting on the cake for me, not only being able to contribute to the industry, but there’s a little bit of a social aspect to it as well. You get to meet all of the other CEOs. You get to hear all their ideas at that level, compare notes and make an impact. That’s a completely different experience – a great experience – because now you’re talking about getting involved with the advocacy component and working with folks on Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill and the national level.
Q: What are your top priorities as board chair?
A: We have such a large amount of community banks in Massachusetts – we’re very unusual with the amount of banks we have here. To have a voice on Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill is really important. The main priority of the chairperson and Mass. Bankers in general is making sure that we can support bills and also defeat bills that may harm banks or the business worlds out there. Mass. Bankers allows the community bank industry to have a central place for that advocacy, because, let’s face it, Dedham Savings or Walpole Co-operative or even some of the larger banks – they can’t do it on their own.
Q: Are there any legislative priorities that you are working on?
A: A big priority for us – and it looks like it’s kind of lost its momentum – is the IRS reporting burden that was going to be placed on banks. There was a lot of energy from the John Skarins of the world [Mass. Bankers’ executive vice president of legislative and regulatory policy] to coordinate letter-writing and calling all the right people on the political side of that.
Q: Are there any initiatives that would help community banking?
A: One of the big priorities for us right now is the implementation of a diversity, equity and inclusion program not only for Mass. Bankers but for the industry. DEI has really come to the forefront for every business, and with so many banks in so many geographies with so much diverse size and assets, every bank was at a different point with DEI. One of the things that we’ve done is we’ve created a DEI steering committee, and Chris Oddleifson from Rockland Trust is chairing that. The first thing that we did was we sent out a survey to all of the CEOs of every member bank of Mass. Bankers, and based upon that survey, we realized that banks are all over the place on where they stand.
What we’ve done is we’ve created a vision statement, and we’re in the process of developing a strategic plan. We should have a first draft of that soon, and we’re going to present that to the full board, get it adopted and then introduce it to the member banks. In essence, really what it’s doing is recognizing that everybody is in a different spot on the DEI continuum, recognizing that it’s not one-size-fits-all because we’re all different sizes, but giving them an outline. We want to create a dashboard, and we want to encourage banks to maintain metrics. Any metric that can be applied to DEI, whether it be diversity of employees, then match that up with the diversity of the communities that they serve. Look at your boards. Look at your vendors – don’t keep them out of the equation, that’s equally important.
Q: Have you received feedback from members about this initiative?
A: Yes and no. We’ve gotten specific feedback from the board. There are 20 board members. Because of the diversity of our board in terms of not just race but also geography within the state, it’s a pretty nice mix, and it’s been very well-received. When we issue it, we’ll see who buys in and who doesn’t. But Mass. Bankers has made the decision that as an industry, we need to document and communicate that we’re committed to DEI. I think we’re all committed to it, but as an industry, how is that being communicated out there and how is it being perceived by the public?
Q: What are your thoughts on M&A?
A: It was interesting dynamics in that it was the bigger public players that got together this year. Because banks are doing well earnings-wise, and asset quality-wise, I think some of the smaller banks might think, “Well, we don’t need to merge in with anybody because look how well we’re doing, look how much capital we have.” But with all of our energy going toward pandemic-related things and PPP, don’t lose sight of the fact that cybersecurity, to me, is still the No. 1 threat. I just don’t think a lot of the smaller banks can keep up with it. Who knows, maybe that includes us.
Brown’s Five Favorite “Under the Radar” Golf Courses
- North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland
- The Abaco Club on Winding Bay in the Bahamas
- Machrihanish Golf Club in Scotland
- Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California
- Headwaters Golf Club in Victor, Idaho
