The Slant Podcast

Bank boards that are looking to recruit a new CEO from outside their organization are facing an increasingly shallow talent pool.

Lead Director Dave Porteous provides insights into culture, crisis and the value of ESG at Huntington. 

RSM Senior Analyst Brandon Koeser says that economic uncertainty is the biggest risk facing U.S. banks today.

Bank Director and Former Executive Vice President for the Federal Reserve Julie Stackhouse learned about leadership during the five years she spent as a very active stay-at-home mom.

Jay Sidhu came to the United States from India with hardly a penny in his pocket and built one of the 20 largest banks in the country. He tells his personal story of risk and resilience in this edition of The Slant podcast.

Eighteen months ago, Arvest Bank hired industry outsider Laura Merling to drive change at the Bentonville, Arkansas-based bank. She relishes the challenge of transforming "people, process and technology" at a legacy organization, rather than coming up with a new product at a startup. In this conversation, Merling shares how she's motivating the bank's thousands of employees to embrace change, why...

Frank Sorrentino III wasn't happy with the customer service he was receiving after his bank at the time was acquired. So he started ConnectOne, where he is its de facto chief customer officer.

There are probably few bankers in the country who understand the challenges of digital transformation better than Mike Butler.

Jo Ann Barefoot talks fly-fishing, the intersection of regulation and technology, and what it means to be bold.

Today, David Findlay leads one of the most successful banks in the country — but he didn't show that promise early in his career. He discusses how his past struggles informed his approach to leadership, the ties between training and culture, how commercial banking has changed and his views on the year ahead.   

Dave McOmie is a safecracker who has worked on all manner of bank branch safety systems, from vaults to ATMs.  He discusses how he became a safecracker, how he approaches a locked door problem and what trends in bank branching mean for vaults and the future of safe cracking.

In this episode, Simmons First National Corp.'s Chairman and CEO George Makris, Jr. talks about why he grew the bank from under $4 billion in assets to more than $27 billion today and how he thinks sports builds a mindset for success in life and career. 

Valley National Bancorp Chairman and CEO Ira Robbins shares his experience in becoming a CEO at the relatively young age of 44, and some of the difficult decisions he had to make along the way.

Corporate governance guru Jim McAlpin says a strong board culture permeates the room, and it's easy to spot the indicators of a dysfunctional one. He shares his experiences from almost four decades spent working with banks — including the time he broke up a fistfight between directors.

In this edition of The Slant podcast, Bank Director talks with Reading Cooperative Bank CEO Julieann Thurlow about financial inclusion, innovation and attracting talent.

Former Comptroller of the Currency Gene Ludwig believes the combination of high inflation and rising interest rates present unique risks to the banking industry.

In a newly created role for Fifth Third, Mike Faillo leads its ESG initiatives, focused on strategy, reporting and uncovering opportunities for the big regional bank.

Keefe Bruyette & Woods CEO Tom Michaud discusses his outlook for banks, including the unlikely event of a recession in 2022.  

Keri Cain's disability fuels her passion for cannabis banking.

Southern Bancorp CEO Darrin Williams has an unusual background for a bank CEO.

H. Rodgin Cohen, the senior chair at Sullivan & Cromwell who has advised on many of the largest bank deals in the last 30 years, discusses how consolidation has changed banking, including its impact on community banks.

Tom Brown, managing partner of Second Curve Capital — a hedge fund that Brown started 21 years ago to invest in undervalued banks — talks about his management-centric approach to research, the challenges of being a value investor and some of the best (and worst) bank CEOs he's known over the years.

Ebony Thomas, who oversees Bank of America Corp.'s $1.25 billion, five-year program to drive racial equality and economic opportunity for people and communities of color, talks about the work she does, and also the importance of diverse role models in today's workplace.

John Asbury, president and CEO of Atlantic Union Bankshares, talks about his board's approach to strategic planning, the rise of inflation and whether the industry's consolidation is close to reaching an endgame.

Chairman and CEO F. Scott Dueser talks about some of the factors behind its success, his experience during the Covid-19 pandemic -- and an ill-fated cover shoot for  Bank Director  magazine in 2014.