Ep 31: The Recipe for Growing a Bank in 2024 with WesBanco’s Jeff Jackson

As Jeff Jackson, the CEO of WesBanco, sees it, M&A activity can only go up.

In this episode, Al and Steve chat with Jeff about why that is and what is at stake for community banks across the country.

They also explore other banking classics, including what the future of delivery in banking looks like, how to retain employees  and what has helped the bank grow its deposits in a competitive year. They also opine on another passion: college football.

Transcript

00:00:03:16 - 00:00:25:21
Al Dominick
On deck. But a new episode in Cornerstone Advisors Plugged In series, this one with the CEO of West Banco. Someone who I have to think will be cheering War Eagle this college football season when Auburn gets back on the field. So you know what? I'm going to start this one off by saying War Eagle. Fly down the field ever to conquer never to yield.

00:00:25:22 - 00:00:31:20
Al Dominick
War Eagle fearless and true. Fight on you orange and blue.

00:00:31:22 - 00:00:35:06
Steve Williams
Al, are you trying out for the cheerleading team?

00:00:35:08 - 00:00:41:04
Jeff Jackson
That was awesome. That was great. War Eagle back to you as well. Yeah, we're hoping for a good football season this year.

00:00:41:06 - 00:00:55:28
Al Dominick
Steve. The beauty and just the beauty of having worked in Nashville, Tennessee for like 13 or 14 years and alongside some great SEC fans is, I know how passionate the Auburn Tiger fan base is. So there's no way I was going to bring Jeff Jackson on without giving him a proper shout out.

00:00:56:01 - 00:01:04:02
Steve Williams
Yeah, so Jeff's a grad of undergrad of Auburn and probably at Thanksgiving. Doesn't sit with a lot of Crimson Tide folks right?

00:01:04:02 - 00:01:05:09
Al Dominick
Well, not many do.

00:01:05:12 - 00:01:06:21
Al Dominick
But that's not

00:01:06:21 - 00:01:23:06
Al Dominick
To offend any of our Alabama friends. You know, I played golf with Jeff earlier this year at Bank Director’s really awesome Acquire or Be Acquired conference. And I just want to give everyone a little warning. If this man ever asked to play golf with you, be careful because he can hit the ball a long way. And if you're playing in a skins match, you might be losing some money to him.

00:01:23:06 - 00:01:27:26
Al Dominick
So full disclosure out of the way. Good golfer on the on the pod with us today.

00:01:27:28 - 00:01:28:17
Jeff Jackson
You're not the first person to say that.

00:01:28:17 - 00:01:34:20
Steve Williams
That’s in addition to being a banker who's one of the big headlines right now in our industry. So Jeff great to have you here.

00:01:34:23 - 00:01:40:22
Jeff Jackson
Yeah. Thanks for having me excited. about, talking about banking things and all the good things going on with WesBanco, I, the industry.

00:01:40:24 - 00:02:06:09
Al Dominick
But we got a lot of good stuff going on and kind of in the spirit of fairway rolling and, you know, taking some tracks off the shelf, I have five to keep our conversation going. Ideally, they'll be timely, they'll be relevant and we'll keep things upbeat. So, you know, not to scare anyone away, but we've got David Bowie, Aerosmith, Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Doobie Brothers, and Tom petty and the Heartbreakers to keep things spicy on this new episode of Plugged In.

00:02:06:11 - 00:02:08:24
Al Dominick
Steve, I assume that playlist meets your standard?

00:02:08:27 - 00:02:18:29
Steve Williams
It's got that classic rock, southeast plus Midwest kind of vibe to it, which is great for this. deal that Jeff's going to talk about today. So it's awesome.

00:02:19:01 - 00:02:33:03
Al Dominick
Yeah. And, I mean, I had to I had to get the classics in here because we're going to be touching on some classic banking themes, over the next 20 minutes or so. you know, I'm up in New England at the moment, track. Jeff's in the Midwest, Steve's out in Arizona, so we kind of have the country covered.

00:02:33:06 - 00:02:52:18
Al Dominick
And what we want to do is cover some of the topics that are really near and dear to the bank executive teams’ hearts right now. So Steve and I have done a lot of strategic planning over the summer. Our team at cornerstone has been gathering some pretty interesting insight as to, you know, kind of where the industry might be moving, but we wanted to go to the source and talk to Jeff about what he's thinking and seeing.

00:02:52:21 - 00:03:02:02
Al Dominick
And typically I asked the first question, but since Steve Williams is a big David Bowie fan, I thought I'd give him the opportunity to kick things off with maybe an existential question that we're addressing at the moment.

00:03:02:04 - 00:03:04:26
Steve Williams
Okay, but Al, give me the song first.

00:03:04:26 - 00:03:13:23
Al Dominick
Oh, Steve, come on. This is like you're not checking your setlist. We're doing Changes by David Bowie where “time may change me, but I can't trace time.”

00:03:13:25 - 00:03:41:25
Steve Williams
Okay, well, you know, there's there's been a lot more use of the word existential lately about what looms for community banks and regional banks. And a lot of it relates to growth. When investors are on the line with you and your CFO, what's the growth strategy, especially as it relates to funding liquidity? That good old deposit franchise. So what's your take on growth as it relates to, you know, basically the lifeblood of a financial institution?

00:03:41:25 - 00:03:43:28
Steve Williams
Deposits and core deposits?

00:03:44:01 - 00:04:04:18
Jeff Jackson
No, it's a great question. I think we we're obviously all banks are dealing with it today. it's still very, very competitive. And part of it is really interest rate related. So, you know, to me, WesBanco, we've been very fortunate. And growing deposits, we were up pretty well this year. I feel like back half the year is going to be just as good.

00:04:04:18 - 00:04:28:29
Jeff Jackson
And that's really focused on relationships, but it's also having a core retail franchise. we have about over 190 branches today. And, you know, we've really leveraged those leverage building relationships. So I would tell you in the past we were more loan focused because we are very flush with deposits prior to the SVB, kind of banking crisis last year.

00:04:29:02 - 00:04:51:16
Jeff Jackson
but we've really kind of changed that into more of a relationship building. And so for us, we've seen some very nice deposit growth, because of our retail footprint, because of what we've changed. We've done some nice digital products as well. And I think that's really important too. If you're going to be a strong deposit gatherer, you've got to have great digital products, you've got to have mobile products that customers want.

00:04:51:16 - 00:05:14:21
Jeff Jackson
And so we rolled out a brand new WesBanco One account that has a lot of features, that we give away for free. But it's similar to JP Morgan where you have early paycheck access. you've got a cash, please overdraft product. You've got credit scoring, a great mobile app. And so we've seen about writing about 9000 accounts a month, on that.

00:05:14:21 - 00:05:33:23
Jeff Jackson
And I've seen some nice pick up there. And then on the commercial side, we've really been aggressive in going after full relationships. And so, our, our loan to deposit ratio, very fortunate to have around 90%. So we can still do a lot of lending, which also brings in that TM and that, deposits which has been very nice.

00:05:33:26 - 00:05:50:14
Jeff Jackson
to me, I think, you know, in some point, you know, the, the economy and, and banking evolves. Right? So we're always evolving. You remember, what, two years ago we couldn't get rid of deposits. Right. And so. Right, you know, you kind of had some banks running deposits off as we ran into this crisis in March of 23.

00:05:50:21 - 00:06:08:16
Jeff Jackson
Yeah, the back half of 22 where people were trying to get their costs down. we weren't one of them. But, you know, I think we're. We'll see a shift in that to me when you look at a lot of banks balance sheets today and a lot of banks have very high loan to deposit ratios, right. You know, they say high 90s.

00:06:08:16 - 00:06:39:14
Jeff Jackson
But if you take out the broker they're easily reset. And so a lot of that is caused by obviously the fed pulling some money out. But you've also got a lot of banks that do a lot of CRE lending. And so if you think about the CRE lending, a lot of banks, including ourselves, were getting heavy payoffs to the permanent market, CMBS, those type of things that when rates increase, there are a lot of real estate developers that aren't signing up for 30 year money, you know, seven, 8%, they're waiting for those rates to come down.

00:06:39:14 - 00:06:59:04
Jeff Jackson
Then they'll step over into the permanent market. But in the meantime, all that's done is just continue to fill up banks balance sheet. So I think that's one of the reasons why, you see, these high loan deposit ratios thus putting pressure on the deposits. Right. So you've got all these banks competing for deposits at higher rates, obviously hurting net interest margin.

00:06:59:06 - 00:07:18:24
Jeff Jackson
And so for me, when I see this all changing and I don't know what interest rate it will be, but once you see interest rates starting to come down at to some level, that will make sense for more CRE to go to the permanent market. Thus to me relieving some of this deposit pressure. Right. So you'll see bank start falling below 100%.

00:07:18:27 - 00:07:38:27
Jeff Jackson
We're we're we're obviously well below that. And then at that point that's when you'll start seeing deposit pricing just start falling. Right. So all these community banks that are, you know, can't lend or fighting for deposits at five, 6%, etc., that changes the whole landscape. And so, you know, to me is that end of next year, the following year.

00:07:39:00 - 00:07:57:07
Jeff Jackson
but then I think you'll see some credit balances drop, but you'd hope that be replaced with either new volume or mortgage pick back up rates of if what if rates drop. You should see a pickup in mortgage. But that's kind of how I see this kind of eventually playing out. and kind of this deposit, competition kind of waning.

00:07:57:14 - 00:08:00:10
Jeff Jackson
It's once the, loan balances kind of get paid down.

00:08:00:12 - 00:08:14:28
Steve Williams
Yeah. Good point. And now I think, that's kind of the organic, deposit growth. But then a lot of folks have been waiting to your point about rates on the what's going to strike the match of some more M&A. And, if you want to take our next song Al?

00:08:15:00 - 00:08:32:16
Al Dominick
It was funny because Jeff uses the word evolve, and I think it's like evolve and grow is really a theme that I've started to pick up on in my travels. You're right, Steve, I do like music and you do too. Since I'm up in New England, I've got to go with Boston’s own Aerosmith, where they've got a song, Sweet Emotion.

00:08:32:19 - 00:08:49:00
Al Dominick
You may be familiar with it, but “you're calling my name. But I got to make clear I can't say baby where I'll be in a year” I feel like last year nobody knew if there was going to be any bank M&A coming back. We've seen a few notable transactions announced to start the year, and then more recently we've had a few other big ones.

00:08:49:00 - 00:09:13:12
Al Dominick
So again, full disclosure, this is not talking about WesBanco’s. proposed merger with Premier. You know, that merger doesn't have regulatory or shareholder approval yet, but there is some information out in the public domain. And we've got, again, the CEO of WesBanco. So who's sitting here who has been in the M&A game for a while, understands that staying competitive and relevant sometimes allows you to find a dance partner that is attractive and complementary.

00:09:13:15 - 00:09:24:18
Al Dominick
So, you know, we wanted to really start you off by asking your outlook on the 2025 M&A market in terms of where you see things potentially speeding up or conversely, pulling back.

00:09:24:20 - 00:09:37:03
Steve Williams
And just a footnote real quick, Jeff, this is an $18 billion powerhouse, merging with the 9 billion to create a 27 billion. So this is the for the listeners. This is what we're talking about, a very high profile deal out there right now.

00:09:37:06 - 00:09:39:14
Al Dominick
Thanks, Steve. Good point.

00:09:39:17 - 00:10:03:17
Jeff Jackson
Yeah. We talk about growing all the time. I mean, to me, I think anybody who's part of a company wants to be part of a growing organization. And for us, you know, we're very excited about the premier acquisition. they have a lot of great things, including their culture, their footprint, how they do business, their leadership and the type of business they do that really made it very attractive for us.

00:10:03:19 - 00:10:23:24
Jeff Jackson
And so we're really excited as, as, you know, we just announced that they acquisition at the end of July, we're going through, regulatory approval right now, and we're targeted hopefully to close if we get everything done in kind of first quarter next year. But talking about M&A in general, to me, I think it will only pick up.

00:10:23:28 - 00:10:41:15
Jeff Jackson
And there are several reasons why a I mean, you could arguably say, it's kind of like interest rates were two years ago. You they can only go up. Right. and so I think M&A activity can only pick up as well. But I think what you're seeing, at least in the landscape that we look at, is there a lot more, sellers than buyers.

00:10:41:18 - 00:11:05:03
Jeff Jackson
So if you're a buyer, it's a great time to be out there looking. And there's multiple reasons for that. But, you know, specifically, I think that, right now you still have bank valuations are somewhat depressed. you could say there's some upside there, especially when rates start to decline. You simply see some net interest margin expansion. the other thing too is why there's more sellers.

00:11:05:03 - 00:11:28:07
Jeff Jackson
You know, to me, I kind of look at various factors of who would be a seller. So you got to look at, you know, obviously age of the CEO is big age of the board is big. Are they up against a regulatory hurdle, whether that's 10 billion, whether that's 100 billion. do they have funding pressures. Right. Loan to deposit ratio is driving a lot of these banks to think about selling that maybe wouldn't have in the past.

00:11:28:09 - 00:11:57:29
Jeff Jackson
and that's based on, you know, various factors there. and, you know, there's just other things that that banks, I think, who maybe didn't think they were a seller a year ago. Now we're looking at this and saying, wow, it's a really tough road. If I have to continue to try to raise deposits to grow and potentially get back to where they were at the end of 22, that could be a 3 or 4 year versus looking at a partner saying, hey, I can get in with a great company, like WesBanco and I can trade their currency for mine.

00:11:58:06 - 00:12:23:14
Jeff Jackson
And there's a lot of right, great running room. They pay a nice dividend. they've got a great leadership team franchise to move forward and you're better together as one. So I think that, M&A is going to continue to increase, especially for people that can buy. I think that if you're a seller, you need to hurry up and find a partner because I think there are a lot of buyers that are that are working on deals or already have announced deals.

00:12:23:16 - 00:12:41:03
Jeff Jackson
And, you know, if you look at the other piece of our deal, as you saw, it's 44% of created earnings. you know, some of that's interest rate marks, right? but, you know, one of the nice things that, that you might not think about is today, if you look at a bank's balance sheet and you've got a lot of, mortgages, right.

00:12:41:03 - 00:12:59:25
Jeff Jackson
Say you put on some 30 rate mortgages at those great rates, 3%, 3.5%. Everybody loves that. Right. But banks now don't like having that on their balance sheet because obviously drives down the Nim. And their deposit costs today are probably well above the three, 3.5%. The nice thing about doing acquisition is I get to mark all those loans.

00:12:59:25 - 00:13:25:18
Jeff Jackson
The market. So all those three, 3.5%, they call my book six and a half, 7% and they don't ever pay off. Right. So I'm earning six and a half, 7% because of a creative accounting. they're a long term, asset that nobody's paying off. They're, they're they're, they're low mortgage. And, so that's just one of the factors you don't think about, as you, as you're talking about the, financials and economics of a of a deal.

00:13:25:20 - 00:13:35:06
Steve Williams
Yeah, it's kind of the new, deposit premium thing is the accretive accounting that comes with the several years after closing. very much so.

00:13:35:09 - 00:14:01:06
Al Dominick
Well, you know, as you guys are talking about this again, Steve's point of the combined size of the two organizations, it gives you some new opportunities to try and some new things, because with that size, you're able to spread costs over a larger base. Historically, people have talked about size and scale as being so important as we continue to push the digital evolution, you know, mantra within the financial services sector.

00:14:01:06 - 00:14:20:09
Al Dominick
So I want to pivot off of M&A and talk a little fintech for a moment. But again, thinking about Jeff. And if you look at his bio you can pick up on this. You know, look like you worked at IBM for some 15 years. So if I took Big Blue experience and toss it on your deck, I'm sure you'd be able to say, you know, hey, there's some interesting things that are going on.

00:14:20:12 - 00:14:43:21
Al Dominick
You'd probably cue up a little music from Bachman Turner Overdrive. So let it ride because you can see the morning. But I can see the light. Try, try, try. Let it ride. We got to let it ride. When it comes to fintech because it's friendly as certain companies are. There are some that are potentially threatening. And I'm just curious how you see the fintech space potentially impacting your core commercial business.

00:14:43:24 - 00:15:09:26
Jeff Jackson
Yeah, we see a lot of fintech is more partners, partnerships, especially when it comes to commercial. And so part of our acquisition, as you talked about, you know, it gives us bigger scale and it invites new investors, but it also gives us the ability to look at better technologies, you know, expanding our technology base. But from a fintech perspective on specifically commercial relationships, you know, I want to highlight relationship.

00:15:09:26 - 00:15:30:19
Jeff Jackson
So to me, I think fintech is very good, especially in the consumer space where you're not, there's not as much relationship as there is on a commercial, banking relationship. So I'm not sure it'll ever replace the face to face relationship, as it relates to commercial businesses. But I think there are some products that we can use and leverage.

00:15:30:19 - 00:15:47:28
Jeff Jackson
And if you look at, you know, one of the ones which I know goes to bank director and the numerator, right? I mean, they were the heroes in the, the, SBA loans. We use them. I know they've got some other products we were looking at, but, you know, that's one fintech where they were a great partner to the banking industry.

00:15:48:00 - 00:16:19:08
Jeff Jackson
to allow us to get all the money out during Covid. And, you know, the digital signature, right? DocuSign, those type of things. we see a more as partner, especially on the on the commercial space. Obviously in the consumer space, there is some that are competitors. the other thing I would say is, Memphis, you know, they they've got several platforms and in AI that we're leveraging during Covid, we actually upgraded our core system, which is allowed us to expand our APIs, to allow us to do more business with certain fintechs.

00:16:19:10 - 00:16:41:13
Jeff Jackson
And they also have a office greenhouse, which also is kind of a, bringing together of fintechs and banks. And, and we leverage that. And they kind of, I guess, vouch for and validate some of that as well. So for me, it's, I think, you know, technology's always going to be changing. We're always got to be at least table stakes.

00:16:41:15 - 00:17:00:11
Jeff Jackson
I don't ever think most banks are not going to be cutting edge, right? We're not the JP Morgan Bank of America where we can spend, you know, $3 billion on technology. But the nice thing is, we don't have to because there's a lot of fast followers, there's a lot of vendors and software companies that are that can really bring the equivalent to two banks of our size and smaller.

00:17:00:13 - 00:17:23:01
Steve Williams
You know, just listening to Jeff, that, 190 branches relationship based, I think sometimes the folks at Chime or SoFi might say, you know, that's yesterday's world, but you have it sounds like with a digital strategy, a technology strategy, you think you can really continue to compete in that consumer banking with branches complemented with digital that fair to say?

00:17:23:03 - 00:17:40:29
Jeff Jackson
Absolutely. And you know, what's funny is obviously you all know this branch transactions continue to drop, right? I mean people do more stuff on their phone. But the flip side is you you take a poll of anybody, how did you choose your bank? Well, it's location of a branch. Just because they like to see the sign, they like to note part of it is just knowing it's there.

00:17:40:29 - 00:18:00:22
Jeff Jackson
Right. So you look at some of these digital platforms, you know, and I use some of them myself. But the fact is you can't walk in and talk to somebody if you have a problem. And obviously managing money is a big important issue for everyone. And they like to have that just security of I can walk in and see somebody's face to face and they can fix my problem.

00:18:00:25 - 00:18:20:14
Al Dominick
Well, and I think that's, you know, one of the kind of key themes that emerges when we have conversations like this is technology. There are great tools, but unless you have the right teams, those tools go for not so pretty much my, you know, my fourth big question, inspired by the Doobie Brothers and their song listen to the music.

00:18:20:16 - 00:18:37:05
Al Dominick
It's a describe the West Banco model for developing your next generation of talent and leadership. And the way I would say this is, you know, if if Steve and I were on your board and we challenge you for a few proof points that you're preparing the next generation of leaders, what would you show us?

00:18:37:07 - 00:18:55:21
Jeff Jackson
Yeah, that is a great question. And that's something we talk about all the time. To me, I think any organization and the ones I've been with, you know, I think in you probably been with two they have the apps, the down, the you know, they go through evolutions they evolve to good or bad or whatever. But to me it all hinges back on leadership.

00:18:55:24 - 00:19:20:02
Jeff Jackson
Everything you look at hinges back on the leadership of that organization. And you also think about why are we able to attract a lot of people and retain our retain? we retain 98.4% of our employees last year. you know, one of the top, if not the top in the industry. And that's because we put focus on making sure we're, you know, being a very employee friendly place to work.

00:19:20:02 - 00:19:35:24
Jeff Jackson
We won. Newsweek named us one of the best places to work in America. We were one of 27 banks to win that award out of 4000. Right. And that's something I work at every day, is I come to work and I think about how can I make my employees lives easier, how can I make them more successful?

00:19:35:24 - 00:19:54:25
Jeff Jackson
How can I make our company easier to do business? And, you know, how do we reward our top employees and give them a great career track? You'd say, all right, this is what my future looks like at WesBanco. I never want to leave here, and I know I'm going to be taken care of. And I can trust, and feel proud of the company that I work for.

00:19:54:27 - 00:20:15:02
Jeff Jackson
Those are things I think about every day. And so if you're asking me for multiple examples of, you know, talent and different things, me, I can tell you, you know, we have, coaching workshops. We have a big leadership challenge where we do a lot of leadership training. we also have several Dei symposiums and ERG groups.

00:20:15:04 - 00:20:36:12
Jeff Jackson
that's really critical as well. I speak at all those, the other thing we do is, planning. We're really big on session planning. We present that to the board and probably the top 50, 75, positions in the company. And then we also think about, and make sure everybody does kind of a, you know, development plan.

00:20:36:14 - 00:20:57:25
Jeff Jackson
So we really push our leaders to do development plans with all of our employees. So they can say, hey, what's it going to take for me to do this, make this next level? What's it going to take for me to be two levels above, who do I need to talk to? What are the skills I need to gain so they're ready and I can give you a, you know, a great example was, unfortunately, our head of HR passed away back in June.

00:20:57:27 - 00:21:15:12
Jeff Jackson
it was kind of sudden, but, we were ready. And, Kim Griffith, who, replaced, that person, had been with us for 20 years. And so, you know, always been in kind of the next writers up circle and had been getting a lot of experience, doing a lot of things in our company.

00:21:15:14 - 00:21:32:02
Jeff Jackson
And so when that opportunity arose through unfortunate circumstances, we were able to put her in. And so, you know, it's worked out very well. she was able to bring the group together. We've had no attrition based off of that. And, she's just blossomed as a leader. So to me, I think it's a lot of preparation.

00:21:32:02 - 00:21:52:28
Jeff Jackson
It's a and it's also a lot of communication, too, right? I mean, you've got to make sure you're communicating with your top employees and telling them, hey, here's your future. It's this is what it looks like. These are the things we stand for. another thing we did was we renewed our kind of mission, vision and pledge. And I presented that to, 200 leaders and then to the whole company earlier this year.

00:21:53:01 - 00:22:13:16
Jeff Jackson
And it's basically just saying, hey, here's what our mission is, here's what our vision is, and then this is our pledge, or basically a set of foundational things that we're going to agree we're all going to build upon. And so once again, it's it's all about making sure leadership communicates with employees about our company is about you and taking care of you.

00:22:13:18 - 00:22:30:26
Jeff Jackson
And making sure our company thrives. And so those are the things we we always focus on. I talk about all the time, we've had great success recruiting teams, whether it's Chattanooga, my hometown, or Nashville or Indianapolis. I like to say, you know, one of the things I look at to say, hey, how is WesBanco are doing?

00:22:30:28 - 00:22:56:22
Jeff Jackson
If you look at our second quarter earnings, you know, we grew loans in Ohio, Tennessee, Maryland and, and Kentucky, four different markets, four vastly different competitors. Right. Those are all four different. You don't see much of an overlap in any of those markets, competitors. And yet we grew in all four, which basically says our brand, our culture, the way we go to business, go to the market works better.

00:22:56:22 - 00:22:58:10
Jeff Jackson
What market?

00:22:58:13 - 00:23:24:15
Al Dominick
But one of the things Jeff, I appreciate, you know, having spent some time with you earlier this year and some of your leadership team is you modeled the behavior that you really care about and it's embraced by those that can, you know, pay it forward. And so I think, you know, as you describe your leadership style, it's just a good reminder that you can't overcommunicate be it externally with the people that you're serving or internally with those that you expect to deliver, you know, every single day.

00:23:24:18 - 00:23:45:17
Steve Williams
So one comment here, you know what? you have talked about more sellers than buyers. It's kind of like, all the rock bands out there on their last tour because they're approaching 80, you know, it's this demographic, cliff you're going to see in banking. And I think to Jeff's point, the next, seller who says, who's paper do I want to cry to grow with?

00:23:45:17 - 00:24:01:09
Steve Williams
They're going to be looking. Do you have a talent engine? And I think that's very new in banking, that the ones that are going to keep growing and keep growing my share price are going to be the organizations that have really figured out the talent side. And so I think it's great that what you're what you're putting in there that has real teeth on it.

00:24:01:09 - 00:24:02:01
Steve Williams
Jeff.

00:24:02:04 - 00:24:22:02
Jeff Jackson
I would agree. And I also think you've got to be you and your leadership team have to be relatable, easy to talk to, right? I mean, I'm always out talking to employees at every level, going on sales calls and really asking what's wrong and how do we fix things. And to me, I think that's I tell several stories about, you know, and I've only been here two years, but several stories about things I heard were problems.

00:24:22:02 - 00:24:41:21
Jeff Jackson
And I'm like, let's fix them, and we fix them very quickly. And that, as you know, just didn't happen in a lot of places. Yeah, yeah, things take time or they don't get fixed. But to me it's how do we make ourselves better every day? And I think if you go with that kind of mantra and you talk to the people and they see action, it's just going to bring people closer and tighter and, feel good about where they work.

00:24:41:23 - 00:24:54:03
Steve Williams
One thing I applaud, Jeff. You've been there two years. You sound like you almost founded the bank with your passion for it. So it really comes through at my foundation. My exciting for you to come there because you sound like a founder and you've been there two years, so that's terrific.

00:24:54:06 - 00:25:20:17
Jeff Jackson
Yeah. It's great. It's exciting. Place, great culture. I'm very fortunate to be here and take on, moving forward from my predecessor, who did a fantastic job as well. But yeah, it's it's really, you know, when you see you've worked at different I've worked at different banks, institutions, you compete against them and you say, what's the best I can take from these different banks and how they do things at least maybe not today, but in the past, and try to implement that you it's a really good formula for success.

00:25:20:17 - 00:25:39:01
Jeff Jackson
And and then, you know, going back to our deal, you know, we're very thrilled about it. But obviously seeing the market right ups the, new price targets they put on our company, you know, $42, $38 a year just kind of validates the things you've seen. And we kind of went through with this whole premier, acquisition.

00:25:39:01 - 00:25:43:05
Jeff Jackson
So, no, I couldn't be more thrilled. About what. How's it going at WesBanco?

00:25:43:07 - 00:26:01:01
Al Dominick
Yeah. Well, okay, so, you know, we've had this has been a great conversation. We both. And I appreciate you doing this. I got to tease you just a little bit as we wrap things up because, you know, we started with college football and you acknowledged being an Auburn fan. You did mention during this episode about different markets that you serve, Maryland being one of them.

00:26:01:04 - 00:26:16:23
Al Dominick
I went to Maryland for business school. I watched the Terps beat the Tigers in a bowl game this past year. So that's the the last time I can twist a knife to an Auburn fan. But you're in serving markets where there are diehard loyalists that just are, you know, to paraphrase Tom petty, they're running down a dream.

00:26:16:23 - 00:26:37:27
Al Dominick
Every time a new college season comes, they think it's their year. So how do you keep that good vibe going in, businesses, you know, diverse versus year where you got Ohio State fans, you got the Auburn fans and everyone in between. So then on Fridays it doesn't just generate into, you know, let's go to ESPN and figure out what's the over under on the game.

00:26:38:00 - 00:26:57:04
Jeff Jackson
Yeah. It's you know, unfortunately, Auburn hasn't been that great. So we're not a big threat. I'm sure if I was Alabama fan, I'd run into more issues. And, you know, my daughter, I'm taking her next week to Michigan, so she's, going to Michigan, so that obviously fight on. Thank you. Yeah. Grade school. And then you saw my cup.

00:26:57:04 - 00:27:16:15
Jeff Jackson
West Virginia. I've kind of adopted them, being a West Virginia state, based bank and, but, yeah, Ohio State, it's, you know, I love college football. to me, that's my number one sport. I also like pro football. I, you may not know this, but I grew up a Steelers fan, so growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, we didn't have a pro football team.

00:27:16:15 - 00:27:33:21
Jeff Jackson
And so I grew up a Steelers fan. I actually had a homemade I don't know if you remember this. You guys may not be old enough, but, homemade Terry Bradshaw jersey was iron on 12 and the number 12 back, you know, and, people just call my dad Mr. Bradshaw, and he never understood why? Because it was like a homemade deal.

00:27:33:21 - 00:27:50:08
Jeff Jackson
But, But I love sports. College football. I hope Auburn will be better. I think Ohio State is going to be great. West Virginia, I always keep saying we should have an easier schedule because, Oklahoma and Texas went to the SEC. but it should be great with a 12 team playoff. I mean, I I'd love to that we're back.

00:27:50:11 - 00:28:07:23
Al Dominick
We're back. This is when this thing drops. We're going to be a few days out from the college season going. So we're going to have a lot of fun, but maybe not as much fun as we have geeking out on the business of banking. So I just want to say on behalf of Steve Williams and the entire cornerstone team, thanks to Jeff Jackson for getting plugged in with all of us at Cornerstone Advisors.

00:28:07:23 - 00:28:08:27
Al Dominick
Been a lot of fun.

00:28:09:00 - 00:28:13:27
Jeff Jackson
Hey, thank you for having me. It's been a great time and, look forward to seeing you guys soon.