Derek Williams, president and CEO of Century Financial institution & Belief in Milledgeville, Ga., wished to be a financier earlier than discovering his solution 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 in the neighborhood banking world. He has additionally served on ICBA’s govt 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, not like 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 fascinating 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 children 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 realized quite a bit simply from being round them and watching how dad handled them. He had an excellent relationship with banks and bankers, and that attracted me, simply from the standpoint of what they did to assist my dad.”

That mentioned, Williams left the College of Georgia, Terry Faculty 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, certainly 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 obtained 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 most of the jobs that I checked out within the company finance world, and positively the stockbroker world, have been very very similar to 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 most important financial institution within the southeastern U.S., now a part of Financial institution of America, earlier than shifting 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 bought 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 energetic in the neighborhood; 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 individuals come within the morning.

“I like that, and I like the concept of with the ability to be energetic within the chamber and energetic 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 at all times the primary particular person to face up and tackle these roles as a method of attending to know the neighborhood he’s working in.

A fast ascent

Williams set himself a objective of turning into CEO of a financial institution by the age of 40. He achieved it at 34 years previous 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 way of 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 troublesome time.”

What drives Williams—and what bought him by way of that point—is “an absolute perception in and a love for the mannequin of neighborhood banking.” As chairman of the Group 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 robust financial occasions proper now, however there’s at all times going to be a spot for native banks to take deposits from individuals they know, stay with and work with, individuals they perceive, and mortgage that cash to those who they know and perceive—local people.’”

It’s a perception he nonetheless holds. “There’s at all times going to be place for it, regardless of how massive the large banks get, regardless of how automated they get, regardless of how a lot issues change. There’s at all times going to be a spot for that mannequin.”

We use the phrase ‘household’ quite a bit. We’re critical about it at Century. We consider in it. We consider in one another.”
—Derek Williams

Williams believes there’s nice potential for a resurgence in neighborhood banking, due to shifting demographics. He describes acquaintances of their twenties and thirties selecting native espresso outlets over massive names like Starbucks, native {hardware} shops over Lowe’s or House Depot—so why not, he suggests, select a neighborhood financial institution over a nationwide financial institution?

He remembers serving on FDIC’s Group Financial institution Advisory Committee years in the past and being launched to a bunch of millennials who labored there. All however certainly one of them had the identical checking account that they had opened in highschool. When requested what they wished from a financial institution, they instructed him, “In the event you’ll give us the know-how, in the event you’ll give us the flexibility to financial institution on our telephones … however guarantee us that Ms. Sally who we used to speak to on the financial institution continues to be there if we have to discuss to any person, then you definitely’ve bought us for all times.”

This strategy is essential to Century Financial institution & Belief’s success. “If we are able to get them within the door, we are able to hold them,” he says, “as a result of we are able to blow them away with the service that we offer.”

And which means placing ethics entrance and middle. “We use the phrase ‘household’ quite a bit. We’re critical about it at Century. We consider in it. We consider in one another,” he says. “I had an HR legal professional inform me one time, ‘Derek, I need you to recollect one thing. Simply because one thing is authorized, doesn’t imply it’s proper or moral.’ So, I at all times take into consideration that. When we’ve 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.”

Group banks have an excellent repute with legislators and regulators due to our monitor file 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 carefully with ICBA. As CEO, he says, his job is “to create a tradition and to encourage and to inspire and to stay on the 30,000-foot degree, attempting to ensure that everyone else has a chance to do their job as successfully as attainable.”

Retaining 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 pleasure in what they do on daily basis.

He believes ICBA’s advocacy work in Washington D.C., is crucial to shaping the business and impacts all neighborhood bankers in profound methods. “Group banks,” says Williams, “have an excellent repute with legislators and regulators due to our monitor file of protected and sound efficiency and our help of shoppers and small companies. We simply need that monitor file to be acknowledged and thought of in order that rules might be tiered to suit the danger 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 attainable 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 schooling standpoint and likewise from an innovation standpoint,” Williams says. “ICBA is leading edge on that. They’re working with know-how corporations to come back in and never attempt to take our enterprise away from us however assist us do it higher and extra effectively. Group banks can now present know-how that’s simply as slick, cell apps and all of the know-how that the large banks have, however we again it up with private service.”

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, finally 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 at all times wished to do.’”

So, whereas neighborhood banking might not be in Derek Williams’ blood, it’s clearly a job he was born to do.

Roshan McArthur is a author in California.