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November 4, 2019

New KeyBank market president Jim Barger is in a hurry to get to know — and become known in — the Connecticut business community

James R. Barger, President & Sales Leader, KeyBank
By Michael C. Bingham

This summer James R. Barger arrived in New Haven to succeed Jeff L. Hubbard as Connecticut and Massachusetts market president and sales leader for KeyBank, the super-regional Cleveland-headquartered bank with $144 billion in assets. The KeyBank brand name entered Connecticut in 2016 with the company’s acquisition of First Niagara Bank, headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y. Six years earlier First Niagara acquired NewAlliance Bank of New Haven, the successor institution to New Haven Savings Bank, the mutual savings bank founded in 1838. Plenty of longtime New Haveners still refer to KeyBank’s 195 Church Street headquarters building as the ‘New Haven Savings Bank building.’ In southern New England KeyBank occupies a market niche in between multinational giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and Connecticut-based regional banking companies such as People’s United.

Boston native Barger is a U.S. Navy veteran who has spent 26 years in banking, most recently as market president and head of sales for the bank’s Rochester, N.Y. market since 2013. He holds a BS (physics) from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Cornell.

When a new president arrives in a brand new market, how do you learn the ropes in the new community ASAP?

I faced a similar situation six years ago when I took over as market president and head of commercial banking in Rochester. So I have a sense of what went well that time, and what could have gone better. So I’m doing what I can here to execute as efficiently as I can. First priority here is to meet the team, meet the Key bankers.

What is at the core of your mission here as market president?

We’re not here for status quo; we’re here to grow. And to grow, we need more people. So I’m interviewing — planning on hiring very good commercial bankers in the [Connecticut] market and in Boston as well. So first priority is getting to know our operations and our people, then getting to know the other bankers in the market. And then interspersed with all of this is getting to know the community. The bankers are getting me out [of the office]. I’m meeting clients, getting to know our customer base. So there are a lot of things to do.

What’s your message to your new team?

Connecticut and Boston are growth markets for KeyBank. And we’re going to treat them as growth markets. We’re going to aggressively pursue the market using all the resources that KeyBank has to bear.

How is that message being received by your new team?

That [message] has been very well received by the commercial bankers and others as well. Because it’s not just true in commercial banking; it’s true of all our lines of business.

In announcing your hiring the bank said it would be making a ‘greater investment in commercial banking resources.’ You’re part of that investment. What are the other principal parts?

Well, people. Right now I have five [commercial] bankers in the market; if I execute on this plan as intended, we’ll have nine before the end of the year. And potentially more next year — to be determined. That was one of the things that attracted me to coming out here - was knowing that this was going to be a growth area.

Your parent, KeyCorp., is one of the largest banking companies in the United States — but I’m not sure if everyone walking across the New Haven Green right now is aware of that. What is your impression of KeyBank’s public profile in the market?

KeyBank has been here in New Haven for three years now since the acquisition of First Niagara Bank. One of the biggest brand-builders in local banking is your branch network, and we have a pretty robust branch network. So I think the brand is pretty strong. It’s probably strongest in retail. In commercial and private banking, we need to catch up with retail in terms of the strength of the brand. We’re working on that.

Among retail, commercial and private banking, what are the most urgent developmental areas for you in Connecticut and Massachusetts?

It’s all of that. It all moves together. As market president, my scope includes the whole business. The commercial bankers report directly to me, so I am specifically responsible for that. But at the same time we’re investing in business banking, we’re investing in private banking — and some of the things we have going on in retail [banking] are really cool. So we’re really growing in all lines of business.

What got you interested in banking in the first place? You were a science geek in college.

My career path has been non-traditional — as a physics major in college, as a submariner in the Navy working with reactors. Then, when I got out of the Navy, a lot of submariners, nuclear engineers in the Navy left the Navy and worked running commercial power plants. But I [decided] to go to business school to open up opportunities beyond operations in the nuclear power industry. So I spent two years at Cornell, and after two years got my MBA and got hired by a bank — M&T Bank in Buffalo.

Among potential commercial banking customers, what differentiates KeyBank from its competition?

We have a very strong local presence with outstanding bankers who are utilizing capabilities that are unique in this market. We have a full-fledged corporate banking/investment banking/capital markets group, and our commercial bankers are the distribution network for those capabilities.

Our local bankers leverage those resources to provide capital markets and syndicated banking services that a lot of our local competitors can’t do. Or, our competitors are so large that they have those capabilities, but they’re not focused on the middle market like we are. So our sweet spot is the middle market. We’re not going after the $10-$20 billion publicly traded companies to lead those deals. Some of our competitors — [Bank of America] and Wells [Fargo], are well suited to those [large corporate clients]. Another example is that KeyBank has made some very effective minority investments in [financial technology] firms that bring capabilities to our commercial banking customers, primarily on the payment side, that our competitors can’t match.Things that drive their efficiencies and make them more competitive.

Examples?

Such as automating their payables and invoicing process. Automating their receivables. These are capabilities we acquired through minority investments in fin-tech companies. We are marketing those to our commercial clients in the [Connecticut] market very successfully. We are also very aggressively focused on growth. We are out there pounding the pavement letting people know we are open for business. We have a very aggressive growth culture.

You said your commercial-banking sweet spot is the middle market. Define?

We actually have three commercial banking groups. We have our business banking group, which has eight commercial bankers in Connecticut and is run by [SVP and Business Banking Team Leader] Allison Standish-Plimpton. The [annual] revenues [of its client base] go up to $25 million. Then in commercial banking, we start at $25 million and go up from there. We also have industry-focused corporate bankers who are SEC-licensed who are not geographically [focused]; they are industry-focused. These are the corporate/investment bankers and they will have relationships with the largest corporate clients all over the country. We have bankers focused on industrial companies; bankers focused on tech companies; bankers focused on health-care [companies]. So those bankers are focused on companies in Connecticut with annual revenues of $25 million to a couple billion [dollars].

And companies smaller than $25 million in annual revenues?

We have another layer, small-business banking, which is really a retail function. Our branches do commercial loans to small businesses. Often these are retail stores, small businesses, [sole] proprietorships. Small-business lending at this level is handled out of the retail branches.

Yesterday I was in a single-location retail store in Westville, and the proprietor is thinking of opening a second store in Branford. Right now he probably does $1 million to $2 million in annual sales. So you’re telling me he wouldn’t be laughed out the door at KeyBank?

No. I just visited out Branford Green branch last Friday and I visited them last Friday and met all the folks there. Very successful branch. The next day I got my hair cut at a shop on the Branford Green, told the barber I was just moving into town. He asked me where I worked, and I told him KeyBank. He said, ‘I love KeyBank!’ Turns out we do commercial business [banking] for him. That’s an example of our small-business lending. So if your example is opening a second store, our Branford Green [KeyBank] branch would finance that.

Another group that I’m sure you’ve been hearing from are the individuals and non-profit organizations that do good deeds in this town. What can and do you tell them to assure them KeyBank will continue to do many of the good works that were the hallmark of your predecessor bank, New Haven Savings Bank?

I love that part of my job — and that is part of my role as market president. I am the primary face of Key in the community and Key meeting the community’s needs. KeyBank did $1.2 million in philanthropic [direct and in-kind] giving in 2018, so we are a major supporter of the community. One of my roles as market president is to identify what the needs of the community are, and to approach [that function] in a way that’s as beneficial to the community as I can. Supporting me in that role is Lakisha Jordan, who is our corporate responsibility officer. KeyBank will continue to support the market, and I’m here to ensure that happens.

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