First State Bancorporation (FSNM) |
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This is a printer friendly page! Opportunities in three states now give
First State Bancorporation a much larger potential marketplace and geographic diversity Bio of COO, Other areas of responsibility
during this time included those of the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Chief
Credit Officer, management of the organizations investment portfolio, and extensive
analyses of potential acquisitions and expansion activities. Have overseen or
managed the organizations financial and strategic planning processes,
asset/liability management, data processing, item processing, branch operations, and
relationships with external auditors and examiners. Member of the companys and
the banks Boards of Directors. Actively involved in the
community, including membership for six years on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico
Museum of Natural History Foundation, and Chairman of its Finance Committee.
From 1994 through 2000, was a member of the Board of Directors of ACCION New Mexico, a
non-profit organization that makes loans to micro-entrepreneurs in New Mexico.
Served as the Chairman of the Board of ACCION New Mexico during 1999. July, 1980 to March, 1984 Controller for First Wyoming
Bancorporation, a $725 million bank holding company comprised of 24 unit banks.
Joined First Wyoming as a senior accountant and promoted to Controller in
April 1981. Responsible for all financial reporting, S.E.C. filings, asset/liability
management reporting and strategy, and led the financial planning effort for all the
subsidiary banks. November, 1977 to July 1980 Staff accountant for Taylor,
Schmitz and Waidler, C.P.A.s, in Boulder, Colorado. Primary emphasis was
in audit and accounting areas, with substantial involvement in corporate, partnership and
individual taxation. Managed field audit and financial statement review engagements. Education: Bachelor of Science in
Accounting, cum laude, from the University of Denver in June, 1977. Other: In May, 2001, was named the Financial Services
Advocate of the year for the state of New Mexico, by the U.S. Small Business
Administration. Granted the designation of Certified Public Accountant by the state
of Colorado in January, 1979. CEOCFOinterviews: Mr.
Dee, First State Bancorp. has been pursuing an aggressive growth strategy; what have you
been doing and what is coming up? Mr. Dee: Over the
past several years, we have applied a consistent approach of going after the small to mid
sized commercial business that is generally somewhat overlooked, if not neglected by the
larger banks in our market place. By personal word-of-mouth, direct contact and in some
cases, advertising, we have been successful in attracting some steady growth numbers over
the past several years. We want to continue that, and in late 2002, we got into the
Colorado and Utah markets via the acquisition of an industrial bank.Since the acqusition,
we have been focused on putting the best people in place to take a similar strategy
forward in those markets. The Colorado market place, in particular, is much larger than
what we have here in New Mexico. CEOCFOinterviews: Did you anticipate these challenges or did you need to rethink as you went along? Mr. Dee: We definitely had to change course slightly as we went along. We knew there would be some big challenges in those market places. Buying an industrial bank was just a way to get into the market with an earnings stream that we could utilize, which would give us the time to reposition the franchise that was there. We knew going in that the branches were not well configured for a commercial banking operation, so we have been in the process of remodeling those branches in some cases, and in many cases, relocating them. We think we will be much better positioned over the long haul, to service the commercial customer. Some of the personnel had a commercial banking background or mindset but many of them did not, so there have been extensive changes in personnel. We knew it would be a big job to do that and in some respects, it has been more challenging than we had imagined. We finally got some things in place that are going to serve us well in the years ahead. CEOCFOinterviews: What is the state of the economy in the various areas that you serve, and has there been much change in the last year? Mr. Dee: The largest part of our operation continues to be in New Mexico, with approximately 1.2 billion dollars of our assets located in New Mexico compared to approximately 400 million in Colorado and Utah. Here in New Mexico, the economy has been steady; we never saw much of a recession and we dont have the ups and downs that some of the markets have. Over the last couple of years, we have seen steady growth and a return to a relatively strong economy, although not quite as robust as it was a few years back. Colorado and Utah have been more of a challenge and we see some indicators that tell us that in those markets the unemployment situation looks like it is starting to improve. There is still a tremendous amount of economic activity going on in those areas and probably the parts of those markets that have been impacted the most, are the very large multi national type companies, that arent really our customer base to begin with. Our target customer has weathered the storm pretty well and seems to be rebounding as the economy starts to pick up. It is probably a ways away from being very strong in either Colorado or Utah, but we are definitely seeing signs of improvement. CEOCFOinterviews: Your motto, on your website, is Not your typical bankers, not your typical bank, what does that mean for you and please give us some examples of how that is played out? Mr. Dee: That motto took hold here where there is the perception that banks are conservative, rigid, and inflexible. Those are some of the words that come to mind and we are the counter to that, in that we try to take the time to understand what our customer needs and then work with them to find a way to provide them the banking services or lending arrangement that they are looking for. The larger banks tend to want to put their customers into a box of sorts and we dont have any boxes. We try to look at customers as individually as we can and meet their needs as best we can. Surprisingly, some of the market studies that we did in the Colorado and Utah markets at the time we completed our acquisition there, showed that the larger banks had some of the same service issues with their customers there, as what we have seen in our markets here in New Mexico. Our whole approach has been to not be tied up in a rigid way of doing business; we want to have our customers feel like they have someone to talk to and together we will try to find a solution that works for them. CEOCFOinterviews: How do you build those relationships, and typically, do they come in on the loan side first? Mr. Dee: You probably see a little more of it on the loan side than on the deposit side, but I think we have been just as successful in building some of those relationships just purely based on a deposit arrangement as we have on the loan side. The key for us is to have the opportunity to sit down and talk to the people who run the businesses. It is usually an owner, and we talk to them to find out a little bit about their business. It takes time, some one-on-one attention, but that is what we do best. Our staffing levels and the expense that goes with that, are probably higher than what the big banks tend to operate under, but it has been a successful way for us to generate significant amounts of business. Once we get a chance to sit down and talk to somebody about that, generally they are very receptive to building a relationship. Changing a banking arrangement for a commercial business is not something that is done quickly and easily. Before they make those kinds of changes, business owners generally want to know as much about what they are getting into as they possibly can. In some cases, it may take one year or even two to three years to cultivate a relationship; sometimes it happens quicker than that but more often than that, it takes some time on both sides getting to know each other and developing a dialogue and that is what we do best. CEOCFOinterviews: Is there a particular type of business on which you tend to focus? Mr. Dee: I wouldnt say that we really focus on a particular type of business. We are not a bank that can handle a very large corporation such as a company with a hundred million in sales, but we find a wide variety of businesses that we can service well, from the small mom and pop type operator, to a rapidly growing company with sales in the tens of millions of dollars. We dont have a lot of manufacturing activities in New Mexico; there are a few more of those in Colorado and Utah. We havent excluded any type of customer from the bank. There are probably some that we tend to service better or that we have more expertise in, but our lenders are pretty broad-based in terms of their experience and with few exceptions, we can generally find a lender to work with a borrower and be able to do it with some amount of expertise and background in that industry. CEOCFOinterviews: It is clear how you differ from the larger banks. Are there other community banks or similar sized banks in the areas you serve, and why should people be coming to you? Mr. Dee: There really arent a lot of similar sized banks in our market places. The local community banks are smaller than we are and probably dont have the technological expertise or the legal lending limit that we have. The products we offer are not unique but in our market place there are a fair number of smaller community banks that cant handle some of the customers that we can, and then there are obviously a lot of very large banks that operate completely differently. There are not that many banks that do the same thing that we are doing to the degree that we do them. We do have a few good competitors in all of our market places because there are other banks out there that recognize the same types of opportunities that we have seen. CEOCFOinterviews: You are large enough to offer some of the advantages of the big banks yet small enough to be one-on-one; is that correct? Mr. Dee: That is absolutely correct! We have made a commitment to maintain that small bank feel in terms of how we approach customer service. In spite of the fact that we have grown substantially over the past several years, we want to maintain the focus that has been successful and that we think is going to continue to be successful, and our growth numbers in the last year or so seem to prove that out. CEOCFOinterviews: On your last report, you had tremendous loan growth and growth in non-interest bearing deposits; what are you doing there and how do you keep it going? Mr. Dee: Our loan
growth has been a function of having lending staff that is willing to spend the time with
potential new customers. We have seen especially strong loan growth in the Santa Fe, New
Mexico market and the Colorado Springs market. I think the key is having the lenders
inplace to handle the loan requests that we see. Many of our referrals come from people
who have heard about us in the community who perhaps know of another business that banks
with us that has been satisfied. Our own customers are our best advertising source for us
because they can speak on our behalf and it has more credibility than any advertising that
we would do on our own. The loan growth is a function of continuing to be active in the
market places and having the people to handle the loan requests and who know where to go
to solicit some of that business. CEOCFOinterviews: You talked earlier about the length of time to develop a relationship. Is it unusual for a banking organization to realize that relationships need time to develop and to allow their people to take that time to develop it? Mr. Dee: It may be a little unusual but unless we take the time and the effort to show these potential customers what our level of commitment is, a good number of them will never give us a chance at it. We have seen many situations where a business may have a wide range of needs and they may give us a chance at one or two smaller service functions for them, and if we perform well there, then we will get a chance at the larger relationship. We have been successful from that standpoint. We are patient when it comes to that because we are confident in knowing that given the chance over time, we can prove to just about anybody that we can provide them with the banking services they need in a cost effective manner. CEOCFOinterviews: Is there a plan for new branches and additional acquisitions? Mr. Dee: Over the years, we have not been an acquiring type of bank; we completed the First Community acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2002, and this was actually the first acquisition that we had done since one we completed shortly after we went public in 1993. From time-to-time we continue to look at opportunities. Our focus has always been on our internal growth. In the last year, one of our major points of concentration has been to find new locations for some of our branches in the Colorado market. We are going to open three of those new locations in a relatively short time frame during March and April. We also have a new branch slated to open at about that same time in the Santa Fe market; one that will complete our branch network nicely in that area. We are going to continue to look for new locations; we have one in Salt Lake City that we hope to open about mid year and where we go from there depends on what the opportunities are. We are constantly looking for good locations in the markets that we serve that will compliment our facilities. On the acquisition front, that is hard to predict but it would be unusual for us to complete another acquisition any time soon. We think there is such tremendous opportunity in the Colorado and Utah market places that we dont need to try to acquire another bank at this point. CEOCFOinterviews: How do you keep in-touch with the teller to get feedback about what the customer wants? Mr. Dee: Right now, the best way to get feedback is that our tellers communicate well with their branch managers and we bring those branch managers together on a monthly basis for a meeting to discuss things that are or are not working and to give our branch administration people some feedback. There is a short space between the top decision makers in the company and the tellers. We really do listen to what they say; we are not always able to do what they would like but the day that we quit paying attention to what our frontline people are telling us is the day we will start to write our own epitaph. CEOCFOinterviews: Why should potential investors be interested and what should they know that perhaps they dont realize when they first look at First State? Mr. Dee: I think,
for our organization, the key has been that although the majority of our operation is
still here in New Mexico, we now have opportunities in three states that give us a much
larger potential marketplace and some geographic diversity. One very important factor is
that we have some of the best people working for us in all of those markets. As the big
banks have changed their policies and the way they operate, they have opened up the
opportunity for us to hire some of the best banking talent in each of these markets.
Something that we have consistently tried to do is look for new talent that can help take
us forward. CEOCFOinterviews: In closing, do you feel that you are well positioned to take advantage of changes in the industry? Mr. Dee: When we went public in 1993, we felt that the bank merger and acquisition activity was probably going to take place over a 3-5 year period of time and what would happen beyond that was uncertain. It seems that we have been through that first go-round of merger and acquisition activity and probably a second round after that. Now it looks as though the third round is starting to heat up. When we have transactions happening like the Bank One / JP Morgan Chase combination, which we think may stir things up in the Colorado market for us, we think that what we thought was going to be a short-term opportunity for us just continues to happen over and over again. We feel we are still well positioned for that, and want to continue to be positioned to take advantage of that in the years ahead. disclaimers |
To view Releases highlight & left click on the company name! First State Posts 14% Loan Growth and 13% Deposit Growth
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First State Bancorporation ("First State") (Nasdaq: FSNM) today announced second quarter 2004 earnings of $3.3 million or $0.43 per diluted share compared to $3.7 million or $0.49 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2003. For the six months ended June 30, 2004, net income was $6.9 million or $0.89 per diluted share compared to $7.2 million or $0.95 per diluted share for the six months ended June 30, 2003. Posted: 7/23/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com
First State Bancorporation to Host Second Quarter 2004 Conference Call
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First State Bancorporation (Nasdaq: FSNM) today announced it will release its second quarter 2004 earnings on Monday, July 19, 2004 before the market opens and will hold its second quarter conference call via the Internet on Monday, July 19, 2004 at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time, 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Posted: 7/9/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com
First State Bancorporation to Host Conference Call on Status of
Second Quarter 2004
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First State Bancorporation ("First State") (Nasdaq: FSNM) announced today that it will hold a conference call to discuss certain non-recurring charges in the second quarter totaling $415,000 or approximately $.034 per share, restructuring of the Mortgage Lending Division, and slightly lower than expected loan growth. The call will take place on Monday, June 21, 2004 at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Posted: 6/18/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com John Jackson and Kathleen Stout to Lead First State Bancorporation Mortgage Division ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- First State Bancorporation, holding company for First State Bank, New Mexico and First Community Bank, Colorado and Utah, announces the addition of John Jackson as President of the Mortgage Lending Division and Kathleen Stout as Executive Vice President/Sales Manager of the Mortgage Lending Division. Jackson will be responsible for the overall management of the bank's secondary market mortgage origination activities in the three-state area of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Stout will be responsible for managing the sales production, also in those three states. Both will be based in First Community Bank's Colorado Springs office located at 121 S Tejon. Posted: 5/13/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com
Albuquerque, NM--April 19, 2004--First State Bancorporation (First State) (NASDAQ:FSNM) today announced first quarter 2004 earnings of $3.6 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, compared to $3.5 million or $0.46 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2003. The first quarter 2004 earnings included a $435,000 loss on the sale of loans acquired in the First Community acquisition in 2002 and a $236,000 gain on the sale of investment securities related to repositioning the investment portfolio. Excluding the impact of these items first quarter earnings were $3.7 million or $0.48 per diluted share. Posted: 4/28/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com
Posted: 2/17/04 - CEOCFOinterviews.com |
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