Independent Banker - April 2022 - 59

I found I really liked helping
Stephen Gurin
Senior vice president,
director of community
banking, at
$3.7 billion-asset Bar
Harbor Bank & Trust in
Bar Harbor, Maine
Time in community
banking: 20 years
I started in banking in 1986,
when big banks still had
training programs. When I came
out of the training program, I went
into my bank's small business lending
group ... but I really didn't know
a lot about being a good lender in
commercial banking to help clients. I
was just following the bank's policies
and procedures. Then I left regulated
banking and went to work for a
couple of diff erent equipment leasing
companies ... until I landed a job at
CIT Group. I was the senior chief
credit offi cer for CIT's healthcare
group. Shortly after my arrival, CIT
was acquired [and] my division
was moved from Princeton, N.J., to
Tempe, Ariz., but I chose not to go.
I then had ... to figure out what
I wanted to do for the rest of my
life. I got a master's degree in fi nance
and spent a lot of time working
with small businesses in equipment
leasing. I also got the opportunity to
do venture capital work and learned
how money works in business.
entrepreneurs with their
business, which also builds up
their communities. What I learned
along the way is that entrepreneurs
come to a local economy with a set of
skills to help them generate income,
though for most entrepreneurs, their
skills don't include fi nance. Most
don't understand how to reinvest in
their business to make it successful
enough to be worth selling when it's
time to exit-and that's why they ask
Joe Banker to help them.
I was looking for a community
bank to work for, because I believe
in character lending: handshakes,
looking clients in the eye, telling the
truth and honoring commitments.
I eventually found a community
bank like that. I was being
interviewed by the CEO to be the
regional vice president of commercial
lending for a new market, and the
CEO said, " Let me tell you how we do
banking here in central Vermont. If
you serve the market well, you'll earn
new business,
our clients will be
happy and we will
be happy. If you
don't serve the
market well, then
you won't earn
new business,
our clients
won't be happy
and we'll have
an unpleasant
conversation in
about a year. " And
then I thought,
that's exactly what
a community
banker should
be: somebody
who comes in
and serves the
community.
I worked
there [until]
2013, when Bar
Harbor Bank
& Trust's CEO
came and found me. I've been here for
eight years, managing a team of nine
commercial lenders. Our customers
are all local mom-and-pop businesses.
I've learned that a community
bank is basically a community asset.
[They] are a vital tool for keeping
neighborhoods and communities
active. If we're not investing in
communities, they are not growing
and thriving. That's the primary
purpose for a community bank-to
help keep communities vibrant.
There are a tremendous number
of tools for people to bank
electronically without talking
to anybody, but when they need
to do something important, the
guidance they get from a banker-
getting their questions answered,
bringing up things they may not
have thought of-can't be beat.
Banking, ultimately, is still a one-onone
activity; that hasn't changed.
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a writer
in California.
Gurin (left) volunteered at a YMCA
marathon event in 2021.
" Community banks are a vital tool for
keeping neighborhoods and communities
active. If we're not investing in communities,
they are not growing and thriving. "
-Stephen Gurin,
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust
independentbanker.org Q 57
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - April 2022

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