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Northeast Bancorp/ME (NBN) |
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CEOCFO Current
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This is a printer friendly page! Delivering
superior earnings and competitive dividends is a sign that Northeast Bancorp/ME is always
mindful of the needs of their shareholders Northeast Bancorp/ME BIO: Prior to joining Northeast Bancorp, which,
historically, was known as and/or affiliated with Bethel Bancorp, Bethel Savings Bank FSB,
Brunswick Federal Savings Bank FSB, etc., Delamater was an officer with Oxford Bank &
Trust, a regional commercial bank located in western Maine. Prior to his career in banking, Delamater served as a
licensed representative of the New York and other stock exchanges with firms such as W.E.
Hutton, Thompson McKinnon, Burgess & Leith and Robert C. Carr and Company. In
addition, Delamater has owned and operated a men’s clothing store. Throughout
his career, Delamater has invested in a variety of business activities and/or real estate
development projects. Delamater has been and remains active in civic
organizations. He has served a past president of the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce,
Oxford Hills Development Corporation and remains president of the Tri-County Babe Ruth
League. He is a member of St. Catherine’s church in Norway. He is also a member of the Loan Committee for the
Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and has a long history of participation in
local and/or regional service and/or credit organizations. He has served on a variety of Boards of Directors
during his career including Chairman of the Board of Oxford Networks, Chairman of the
Board of Syris Scientific as well as a board member with Northeast Bancorp and
subsidiaries. Delamater graduated from Oxford Hills High School,
received a nomination from the US Air Force Academy from the state of Maine, served a term
with the US Air Force and took various courses from the University of South Carolina and
the University of Southern Maine. Delamater is a native of Maine and resides with his
wife Jean in Oxford, Maine. They have two sons, Christopher and Matthew. CEOCFOinterviews: Mr.
Delamater, when did you join Northeast Bancorp/ME, and what has been your strategy? Mr. Delamater: “I joined the bank in 1981 and the company has been around since 1872 Our plan was to grow the company to a financial service organization that could deliver virtually every financial product and service to our clients, so we developed the strategy to take us to that point. We serve 14 retail locations, and western, coastal and mid-western Maine.” CEOCFOinterview: Has Maine been affected by the economy downturn? Mr. Delamater: “Maine’s biggest strength is its biggest weakness. It has a stable environment that typically has not seen much growth, or much slowdown. Stability is our motto in terms of our history. We have learned to manage within that low growth environment, and that is why our strategy was to create access to more financial products.” CEOCFOinterview: I understand that your motto is “together will get you there,” what does that mean? Mr. Delamater: “Our tag line “together will get you there,” goes in tandem with a program we installed that we are most proud of called “shared values”, which is a program that has been designed to give all of our employees a behavioral system that will allow them to do things that involve team work. This program has been very successful for our organization. There are eight principles of values such as truth, trust, being receptive to new ideas, taking personal risks for the sake of the organization, giving credit where credit it due and putting the interests of others before your own. This has developed for us the teamwork we want, whereby people can work together to satisfy the needs of ourselves and our custoomers..” CEOCFOinterview: Will you explain about the mix, commercial, consumer etc.? Mr. Delamater: “We worked hard in the development of a diverse mix, and I don’t see that changing. We run about a third commercial and a third real estate related mortgage, and a third consumer as we desire to have the right amount of diversity to protect the balance sheet. So far it has worked, and has allowed us to create a stable and steady base.” CEOCFOinterview: What do you look for in terms of commercial customers, and is there a focus for a particular type of customer? Mr. Delamater: “Diversity is the key. One of the things we work hard for in our portfolio is the high degree of diversity within the commercial portfolio itself. We are able to capture a good cross section of commercial customers in a variety of industries.” CEOCFOinterview: How do you attract new business? Mr. Delamater: “I would like to think that the key has been the development of a sales structure, where we get out and spend time knocking on doors, and listen to people, to establish what they are looking to accomplish, and then go find the right product. Our diversity makes us unique, in that we deliver our products, and the products of a whole host of other organizations. We found that is our best approach, to do a certain amount of marketing and to rely on the door-to-door delivery of the need-based strategy.” CEOCFOinterview: Will you give us an example of where you might direct someone that is outside of the bank to certain services? Mr. Delamater: “We have a commercial loan origination division, which is charged with meeting with commercial customers and establishing what their capital needs are, and in many cases, we look at their needs to see what our own bank team can so and let them know if there is a better choice. We deliver that customer a commitment letter from any of a number of sources. It could even be another bank.. At the same time, we build wonderful relationships that are designed to deliver all of our other products. We carry this mission throughout the organization, even to the point of saying that if a rate is better down the street, that we will inform the customers so that they can make the right choice. Customers trust us to do the right thing.” CEOCFOinterview: It is certainly unique for a bank to do that! Mr. Delamater: “I don’t know of anyone else in our market area that takes that approach, especially to the extent that we do.” CEOCFOinterview: Will you tell us about the trust services and the fee based services? Mr. Delamater: “Trust services for us, are oriented toward private banking, but it is more of a focus toward high net worth individuals. We give them the level of attention and the personal advice that they need.” CEOCFOinterview: Are there any services that you are not offering now, that you would like to put into place? Mr. Delamater: “That is the best news! After 23 years of effort, we have been able to create the infrastructure that we need to deliver all the products and services that our customers want. We are much more focused now on growing the company and growing revenue, than we were in the past. In the past, we spent a great deal of time building the infrastructure. It is nice to say that we are done building, and we can now build revenue.” CEOCFOinterview: Is Internet banking a big feature for you? Mr. Delamater: “It has not been to date, however, we watch that very carefully. We are ready to go at a flick of a switch. It just hasn’t been a big demand for our client base, however, we probably will install Internet banking within the next three or four months.” CEOCFOinterview: You seem to be a mid-sized bank, how do you maintain personal service as you grow? Mr. Delamater: “I think our shared values progam has played a major role. It allows us to communicate with each other so that we can remind each other to maintain personal service. I call it a never- ending battle, that no matter what your size, you still need to work at instilling that attitude.” CEOCFOinterview: How do you as CEO, keep in-touch with the teller, and branches away from you, to know what is happening on the frontline? Mr. Delamater: “We actually have a program, where senior management and I, travel to every department of the company on a regular basis to spend time and listen to our teammates share with us. It is a wonderful way to get some great insights on what is working.” CEOCFOinterview: Do you see new branches in the future? Mr. Delamater: “We always look for new opportunities, whether it is branches, acquisitions, or anything to enhance our ability to deliver service. Right now, with today’s technology it is not as important given that we are able to utilize virtually any bank branch. ” CEOCFOinterview: What steps do you now need to take to grow the business? Mr. Delamater: “The biggest step is to train all of our people better in the sales process and the sales culture, and to get everyone on the same page, particularly as we add people from other organizations. It is important to get everybody trained in understanding our culture and to make sure we are all operating in the same direction.” CEOCFOinterview: What do you look for when you hire people? Mr. Delamater: “The main thing would be integrity and attitude. We will spend time and resources to train the right people. I mentioned our shared values program, and for us it is very important that people stay within that program, therefore we spend a lot of time teaching and preaching our culture and what we have established, to determine whether it is something people are comfortable with, because it is very different than the traditional hierarchal system. This program requires and encourages freedom to speak with anyone.” CEOCFOinterview: Is it a struggle to get your customers to understand your concept and what you can do for them? Mr. Delamater: “I think it is a struggle that is made easier with a one-on-one approach. It is a difficult marketing approach to get that message across in the traditional way.” CEOCFOinterview: Is word-of-mouth important for you? Mr. Delamater: “Absolutely, referrals are probably our biggest growth area. Having said that, our goal these next few years, is to do more traditional marketing to complement the other as well.” CEOCFOinterview: Please tell us about community involvement for the bank. Mr. Delamater: “We serve many communities which is one of the challenges of having fourteen locations. We try to spread our dollars, time and resources around, to serve all of the communities.” CEOCFOinterview: What do you anticipate in terms of growth for the future? Mr. Delamater: “The asset growth for our company, given our structure and product diversity may not be as significant as in the past. We can grow revenue and earnings without having to grow assets as dramatically. Reasonable asset growth and income diversity are what we are striving for.” CEOCFOinterview: Why the decision to increase your dividend recently? Mr. Delamater: “Our number-one strategy is to serve three main constituents. Our employees, our customers, and our number-one constituent is our shareholders. We work for the shareholders and our strategy is always to be mindful of their needs and to deliver superior earnings, but more importantly, to deliver a fair and competitive dividend and at the same time leaving us sufficient capital to grow the company and support the buy back of our shares.” CEOCFOinterview: In closing, why should potential shareholders be interested in the company? Mr. Delamater: “With regard to investors, we believe our stock is a win-win opportunity. We have been careful to protect interest rate and credit risk. We work very hard to keep our balance sheet strong as it protects the integrity of our franchise.” disclaimers |
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