Photo courtesy of The Savings Bank
Raichelle L. Kallery
President and CEO, The Savings Bank
Age: 54
Industry experience: 36 years
Raichelle L. Kallery joined a rarefied group in January: She’s now one of only 22 female CEOs at Massachusetts’ 128 banking institutions. She’s also the first female president and CEO in Wakefield-based The Savings Bank’s 155-year history. She succeeds Robert J. DiBella who retired on Dec. 31, 2024, after a 37-year career. According to the American Bankers Association, more than 50 percent of all U.S. bank employees are women in 2024 but just 7.5 percent of banks are led by a woman CEO.
The Savings Bank’s new president has been involved in community banking she was in high school as she worked at a credit union. As president and CEO, she says will continue to focus on innovation and expansion through product and service delivery, plus increased digital capabilities designed to improve the customer experience and efficiency. The bank closed out 2024 with nearly $827 million in assets, and its staff have their eyes on the billion-dollar mark that many said, pre-pandemic, was the threshold for a community bank that wanted long-term success.
Q: What does it mean to you to be TSB’s first female president and CEO?
A: Well, it’s interesting. I’m certainly incredibly grateful to be one of 22 women CEOs [at Massachusetts banks]. I’ve really been amazed by the sense of community and camaraderie and support from the group of women that I’ve been with over the last several months, and in particular over the course of my career. It’s a really connected group, and I’m so grateful to be part of that. In my 18 years here at The Savings Bank, I’ve never felt that they were real gender related issues to overcome. That may not be the norm for some of the others, but I can honestly say that historically, The Savings Bank has really been about providing opportunities for all, and I didn’t feel there were great hurdles to overcome. I’ve just been so appreciative of the opportunities here.
When I joined the bank back in 2006 we had two women on the board, and nine of the 13 senior officers were women. Today, we got five women in board seats and continue to have more than half of our senior officers who are women, including our CFO and our chief technology officer. I’m really fortunate to spend much of my career in a community bank where I’ve always felt valued, and I think all of my peers have as well here.
Q: How do you reflect on banks being able to progress in gender or racial diversity?
A: With everything coming out of Washington right now, everybody’s being so careful, and there’s a little bit of chaos out there so I want to be careful. I’m not looking to make any political statements, but I think to that question our focus really needs to be on workplace engagement and not labeled. The majority of bank employees in the country are women. For community banks in general, the faces and bodies seem to represent the communities that we serve. Focus on bringing in diverse groups from across the organization, and not just depending on that management team. Recognize talent so that they can work on projects and collaborate, and share their daily knowledge, and provide [employees] exposure to some of those non-management positions. Get them in front of the management team and other members of the organization to help grow some of that talent. For us, that’s an area that we’re very much focused on right now.
Q: There’s lots of M&A activity in the Massachusetts banking sector right now. What role does a community bank play in its community?
A: I love community banking. I’ve grown up in community banking, and it’s the space that I’ve chosen to stay in. My message stepping into this new role, to our team and to all of our employees, has been the continued commitment to who we are today: really retaining that commitment to independence, maintaining our strong financial position and focusing on sustainable growth.
For us, it’s critically important to who we are, to maintain our roots as a community bank. I think the joy in that and the opportunity in that is to be able to have a meaningful impact on the financial well-being of our customers, of our small businesses in the community. It’s more than just writing checks for donations. We like to really get our hands dirty and give our folks the opportunity to go out there and participate in whatever meaningful way they choose that impacts our communities.
I think that’s the reality of community banking. We’re making those local loan decisions. We’re standing side-by-side with our customers, with our businesses, with our nonprofits, and I think to be able to continue to do that in an authentic and meaningful way really speaks to who we are, and my vision for the bank. But to do that, we need to continue to build on our strong foundation so that we are sustainable. We’re approaching that billion-dollar mark [in assets], and we’re very much focused on that continued growth, so that we can continue to be the community bank that we want to be.
Q: To that point, what is your vision for the bank? Looking ahead to the future how can TSB continue to innovate, or possibly change to better serve its customers?
A: We kind of have something that we talk about internally. We’ve remained independent since 1869. We want to continue serving customers and not shareholders. How we do it might change; the core of who we are as a community bank will always remain the same. That’s why it’s so important that we’re able to continue to grow in a sustainable way that allows us to continue to innovate.
We’re very fortunate to be in a good position where we have a strong liquidity position, strong capital position. Despite the challenges that we’ve all faced over the last couple of years from the current economic conditions, we’re in a good position where we can continue to invest in those technologies, both customer-facing and internal that are so critically important to having us grow.
Kallery’s Five Favorite Vacation Spots
- Maarten
- San Diego
- Martinique
- Aruba
- Nova Scotia
