Derek Williams, president and CEO of Century Financial institution & Belief in Milledgeville, Ga., needed to be a financier earlier than discovering his approach to neighborhood banking. Photograph by Harold Daniels
Derek Williams, president and CEO of Century Financial institution & Belief in Georgia, is bringing his ardour for neighborhood banking to his time period as ICBA chairman for 2023/24.
By Roshan McArthur
Derek Williams is, he says, excited, honored and humbled to make his debut as ICBA chairman at ICBA LIVE. A banking stalwart described by outgoing chairman Brad Bolton as “a passionate neighborhood chief and a staunch chief of our business,” Williams has constructed a profession by immersing himself locally banking world. He has additionally served on ICBA’s government committee for a few years, together with a time period as treasurer from 2016 to 2018.
He has served as president and CEO of $365 million-asset Century Financial institution & Belief in Milledgeville, Ga., for eight years. However, in contrast to many within the business, this occupation wasn’t in his blood. Requested if there’s a historical past of banking in his household, he laughs—one thing he does usually.
“That’s an attention-grabbing story,” he says. “It’s type of an anti-banking historical past!”
Williams grew up in Barnesville, Ga., on the time a small city of about 5,000 residents. It was one thing of a humble begin, he says. He was raised by a mom who stayed residence along with her 4 youngsters and a father who constructed homes.
“He was a craftsman by nature,” Williams says of his father. “So probably the most expertise I had with banking rising up was him as a financial institution buyer. I knew the bankers on the town as a result of my dad knew them, and I discovered lots simply from being round them and watching how dad handled them. He had an ideal relationship with banks and bankers, and that attracted me, simply from the standpoint of what they did to assist my dad.”
Williams (second from left) with ICBA’s 2022/23 government committee, together with outgoing chairman Brad Bolton, at ICBA LIVE 2022 in San Antonio. Photograph by Chris Williams
That mentioned, Williams left the College of Georgia, Terry School of Enterprise, in 1984 with a BBA in finance, decided to get out of Barnesville and grow to be “the following nice company financier.” However the world had different plans. He graduated right into a recession, considered one of two that will have a profound affect on his profession. Throughout that point, at an interview for a job as a stockbroker, he requested one of many brokers how properly his workplace carried out. The response he acquired reshaped his profession. “I don’t have any concept what the workplace does,” the dealer instructed him. “I solely fear about what I do.”
The implication was easy: The dealer didn’t care about anyone he labored with, which was anathema to Williams. “So lots of the jobs that I checked out within the company finance world, and positively the stockbroker world, have been very very like that,” he remembers. “I used to be used to household, I used to be used to teamwork, and I would like that. I wanted camaraderie.”
So, he joined a coaching program at what was then Residents & Southern Nationwide Financial institution, as soon as the biggest financial institution within the southeastern U.S., now a part of Financial institution of America, earlier than transferring to Griffin, Ga., in 1987. “I went to work for a neighborhood financial institution, type of by chance, and located the job love of my life,” he says. “I acquired a job with First Nationwide Financial institution of Griffin, and I’ve been a neighborhood banker ever since.”
That love of neighborhood has outlined his profession. “One factor about neighborhood banking that I really like is we receives a commission to be lively locally; that’s a part of what we do,” he explains. “We’re dedicated to the neighborhood, not simply from the standpoint of its monetary well being, however neighborhood banks, particularly in small cities, are actually their monetary facilities. They’re the place everyone gathers, the place folks come within the morning.
“I like that, and I like the thought of with the ability to be lively within the chamber and lively on the native boards. This was a job that not solely allowed me to do this however inspired me to do it.”
Williams has a ardour for relationship constructing, whether or not it’s sitting on the boards of native museums or fundraising for Relay for Life, and he admits he’s all the time the primary particular person to face up and tackle these roles as a method of attending to know the neighborhood he’s working in.
Derek Williams and fellow Georgia neighborhood bankers on the 2013 ICBA Washington Coverage Summit, now the Capital Summit. Photograph by Stephen Gosling
A fast ascent
Williams set himself a purpose of changing into CEO of a financial institution by the age of 40. He achieved it at 34 years outdated at First Peoples Financial institution in Pine Mountain, Ga., the place he stayed for 15 years, from 1998 to 2013. Throughout that point, he took the neighborhood financial institution by the Nice Recession of 2008–09.
“That’s when the underside fell out, and Georgia was markedly hit,” he displays on the tumultuous interval. “We misplaced 90-plus banks to failure in between 2008 and 2013. So, it was a really, very tough time.”
Williams with Tori Kala, Century Financial institution & Belief’s assistant vp, loans; and teller Filicia Mohammed.
What drives Williams—and what acquired him by that point—is “an absolute perception in and a love for the mannequin of neighborhood banking.” As chairman of the Neighborhood Bankers Affiliation of Georgia throughout that recession, he would remind others of the significance of their roles.
“I instructed them, ‘Guys, what we do issues, what we do works and the mannequin works,’” he remembers. “‘And sure, we’re having some exceptionally powerful financial occasions proper now, however there’s all the time going to be a spot for native banks to take deposits from folks they know, reside with and work with, folks they perceive, and mortgage that cash to those that they know and perceive—area people.’”
It’s a perception he nonetheless holds. “There’s all the time going to be place for it, irrespective of how large the large banks get, irrespective of how automated they get, irrespective of how a lot issues change. There’s all the time going to be a spot for that mannequin.”
We use the phrase ‘household’ lots. We’re severe about it at Century. We imagine in it. We imagine in one another.”
—Derek Williams
Williams believes there may be nice potential for a resurgence in neighborhood banking, because of shifting demographics. He describes acquaintances of their twenties and thirties selecting native espresso retailers over large names like Starbucks, native {hardware} shops over Lowe’s or Residence Depot—so why not, he suggests, select a neighborhood financial institution over a nationwide financial institution?
Williams with head teller Connie Davis (left) and senior customer support consultant Jennifer Tarver
He remembers serving on FDIC’s Neighborhood Financial institution Advisory Committee years in the past and being launched to a gaggle of millennials who labored there. All however considered one of them had the identical checking account that they had opened in highschool. When requested what they needed from a financial institution, they instructed him, “When you’ll give us the know-how, should you’ll give us the power to financial institution on our telephones … however guarantee us that Ms. Sally who we used to speak to on the financial institution remains to be there if we have to speak to any person, you then’ve acquired us for all times.”
This method is essential to Century Financial institution & Belief’s success. “If we will get them within the door, we will maintain them,” he says, “as a result of we will blow them away with the service that we offer.”
And meaning placing ethics entrance and heart. “We use the phrase ‘household’ lots. We’re severe about it at Century. We imagine in it. We imagine in one another,” he says. “I had an HR legal professional inform me one time, ‘Derek, I would like you to recollect one thing. Simply because one thing is authorized, doesn’t imply it’s proper or moral.’ So, I all the time take into consideration that. When we have now conditions, I do know [my team is] going to reply with what’s greatest for the individuals who work on the financial institution and what’s greatest for our clients.”
Neighborhood banks have an ideal popularity with legislators and regulators due to our monitor report of protected and sound efficiency and our help of shoppers and small companies.”
—Derek Williams
It’s his confidence in Century’s tradition and in his staff that has allowed him the liberty to work intently with ICBA. As CEO, he says, his job is “to create a tradition and to encourage and to encourage and to reside on the 30,000-foot stage, attempting to make it possible for everyone else has a chance to do their job as successfully as potential.”
Holding the flame burning
Williams foresees a difficult 12 months forward, with points from inflation and rates of interest to the ripple results of the pandemic, however he plans to spend his 12 months as chairman lending help to ICBA president Rebeca Romero Rainey and her staff, in addition to reminding bankers that the neighborhood banking mannequin works and to take satisfaction in what they do every single day.
He believes ICBA’s advocacy work in Washington D.C., is vital to shaping the business and impacts all neighborhood bankers in profound methods. “Neighborhood banks,” says Williams, “have an ideal popularity with legislators and regulators due to our monitor report of protected and sound efficiency and our help of shoppers and small companies. We simply need that monitor report to be acknowledged and thought of in order that laws may be tiered to suit the chance profile of the establishments.”
He believes passionately within the ThinkTECH Accelerator, saying it’s on the forefront of bringing know-how to neighborhood banks and is making it potential for these millennials he met, plus the Gen Zers developing behind them, to financial institution domestically.
“There are some sensible, sensible people who find themselves performing some actually cool issues with not solely advocacy on the hill however from an training standpoint and likewise from an innovation standpoint,” Williams says. “ICBA is leading edge on that. They’re working with know-how companies to return in and never attempt to take our enterprise away from us however assist us do it higher and extra effectively. Neighborhood banks can now present know-how that’s simply as slick, cellular apps and all of the know-how that the large banks have, however we again it up with private service.”
Williams throughout a Neighborhood Banker Affiliation of Georgia assembly held on the U.S. Capitol. Photograph by Stephen Gosling
Williams filming a video to be proven at ICBA LIVE 2023
March shall be a busy month. Century Financial institution is celebrating 125 years in enterprise, and he kicks off his time period as chairman with a speech in entrance of a giant crowd of bankers at ICBA LIVE in Honolulu.
However that’s not fazing him within the slightest. He remembers a dialog with Aleis Stokes, ICBA’s senior vp of communications, eventually 12 months’s conference, when she warned him that she would wish the primary draft of his speech by November.
He laughs, “I mentioned, ‘Aleis, that speech has been written for 10 years! That is one thing I’ve all the time needed to do.’”
So, whereas neighborhood banking might not be in Derek Williams’ blood, it’s clearly a job he was born to do.
Household first—all the time
Derek Williams and his household at his daughter Betsy’s wedding ceremony in 2022. Photograph by Justen Clay
Derek Williams has many strings to his bow, however ask him how he likes to spend his time most, and the reply is easy: together with his household. He and his spouse, Karen, simply celebrated 37 years of marriage, and he or she has stayed by his aspect as he constructed his profession, a reality he’s eager to acknowledge, given the frequency of their strikes from financial institution to financial institution as he superior his profession.
“Her dad is a retired lieutenant colonel within the military, and he or she nonetheless jokes that I moved her round greater than he did,” he laughs. “That’s fairly dangerous!” The couple have three daughters and spend as a lot time as they’ll with them, whether or not it’s boating close to their residence on Lake Sinclair or enjoying with their three granddaughters.
Century Financial institution & Belief turns 125
Century Financial institution & Belief initially opened as Retailers and Farmers Financial institution on March 1, 1898, in Milledgeville, Ga. In 1993, it rebranded to replicate its evolving position within the monetary companies business. Right this moment, the $365 million-asset neighborhood financial institution has two department workplaces in Milledgeville, plus a mortgage manufacturing workplace in Greensboro and a various staff that displays its neighborhood.
Neighborhood service is as a lot a pillar of the neighborhood financial institution because it has all the time been. In October 2021, the financial institution raised greater than $13,000 for the American Most cancers Society’s Relay for Life, and in March 2022, the financial institution made a $10,000 donation to John Milledge Academy to assist present scholarships for Okay–12 training in the area people. On March 1, 2023, it celebrates 125 years in enterprise, with Derek Williams at its helm for the final eight.
Roshan McArthur is a author in California.