Mary Noons
Incoming President and Chief Operating Officer, The Washington Trust Co.
Age: 61
Industry experience: 35 years
The Washington Trust Co. is known as the oldest community bank in the United States, but no woman has ever held the title of president and chief operating officer of the bank. That will change in two weeks when Mary Noons steps into the role currently held by Mark Gim. Noons started her banking career in Connecticut before joining Westerly, Rhode Island-based Washington Trust in 1992. She is currently the bank’s senior executive vice president and chief retail lending officer and will begin her new role on April 26.
The $6.6 billion-asset Washington Trust has one branch in Mystic, a loan production office in Glastonbury and a wealth management office in New Haven. Last fall the bank opened a commercial lending office in New Haven.
Q: What is your reaction to becoming Washington Trust’s first female president and chief operating officer?
A: It was very surprising. It was not something that was ever on my to do list. Mark is retiring; he’s younger than I am. I didn’t anticipate that. I’m really honored that they asked me to step into this role. Some of the things that our team has been able to do in the retail lending area is something that the whole bank can benefit from, which is a really process-oriented way of conducting the business. What I mean by that is that you take a look at what you currently do, and then you see if it makes sense. It’s a very disciplined approach. Throughout the whole thing, you have to look at it from the customer’s viewpoint. It’s arrogance to think that if you create it, then the customers are just going to adapt to how you’re going to approach them. The best way to do it is see what a customer needs, what products do they need, how do they want to be approached, how do they want to approach us. That’s the sustainability factor.
Q: What are some of your goals in your new position?
A: I certainly don’t feel like I need to fix much, because we have a strong culture here. People really feel valued and cared about, and that translates into how they care about a customer and their job. I really am just trying to hone in on how can we make things better, just at the margins. This is something every company – banking, non-banking – could benefit from: Just reevaluate how you’re doing things.
Q: Why has Washington Trust decided to expand more in the Connecticut market?
A: We’ve been in Connecticut for years. As we’ve visited there and made connections in the community, we see a real need for Washington Trust there. We’re very community-minded. There are some great banks in Connecticut. We’re not looking to take away from that. We’re looking to add what we can bring, which is a real diverse platform. We offer some services that not everybody has. Wealth management is a big, big part of that. Taking care of people’s money, helping them see a future and helping them accomplish that is one of the more important things you can do as a banker. The fact that we have $6 billion in assets under wealth management right now gives us that size and depth to be able to handle people’s needs. But also there are the communities that are underserved in the New Haven area and New London and any of those areas around there. We have FHA, VA lending that we do. We participate with all the housing programs. We cover A-to-Z on the community banking spectrum.
Q: Do you have any specific goals for the Connecticut market?
A: Trying to get in and serve customers, not just for jumbo mortgages, but for affordable housing needs. I think those are important. The state is wide open for us, but we’re going to take it in steps and see what draws people to us. We’ve been successful in the mortgage lending operation and some consumer lending out of Glastonbury, so it’s exciting to get into the New Haven market.
Q: Are there any plans for more branches?
A: No immediate plans for that. We are building three branches in Rhode Island. We’ve been in Rhode Island for 222 years, and we’re still not through the whole state. We’re penetrating new markets there before we venture outside.
Q: How does Washington Trust spread its name in Connecticut?
A: If you do a job and you do it very well, then that’s your best form of advertising. Because we’ve had an office in Glastonbury, we do some sponsorships for things in and around that area, depending on what the employees are focused on there. It’s really doing your job well and making sure that people know that you care about what you do.
Q: What has Washington Trust been seeing since the bank failures?
A: I think they shocked everybody. [Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank] were not community banks, and we’re a community bank. I like to tell people we’ve been around for 222 years, and we survived the War of 1812, the Great Depression and all the World Wars. We’ve seen a lot in that time, but we remain focused on the core things that we do. Banks like Silicon Valley, they had a completely different balance sheet; they had a completely different focus. We also take a different approach than apparently they did to asset and liability management. We meet on a regular basis and have all sorts of shock tests. And I think most, if not all, community banks do it that way. I’ve sat in [asset-liability committee] meetings for the better part of 22 years or so. And when it gets to some of those analyses, it’s like, why do they do all this? This is exactly why. We take it seriously.
It was kind of a validating thing for us that sometimes these places, like Signature and Silicon Valley, can look very attractive in what they’re doing, and it’s very different than how we conduct our business. We’re very good at sticking to our knitting and making sure that we conduct the bank as safely and pragmatically as possible without being stodgy. We’re very strong, we’re very well-capitalized. We have very solid performance metrics, and we have had that for decades, many decades – centuries. We know what we’re doing; we do it well; and we care about what we’re doing. And that resonates in our market.
Noons’ Five Favorite Travel Destinations:
- Ireland
- Paris
- Hawaii
- Vermont
- Bermuda
