Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | July 22, 2019 | wbjournal.com S U C C E S S I O N P L A N N I N G F OC U S BANK Home to Former Saint John's headmaster returns to Central Mass. to begin a new career as banking CEO BY ZACHARY COMEAU Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer M ichael Welch has now made two 28-hour moves from South Da- kota to Central Mas- sachusetts, and each time it was for the opportunity to lead a well-known and respected institution in the region he calls home. Aer a career in education adminis- tration in two states, Welch became the CEO of Whitinsville-based UniBank for Savings on July 15, replacing former President and CEO Sam Pepper. Chris- topher Foley, a 33-year banker with the mutual bank since 2000 and the interim president since Pepper's departure in March, became permanent president. Welch made the switch to start a new career in a whole new industry, to be closer to aging parents and to come home. "I'm a Worcester kid," he said. A career switch Welch was educated at Saint John's High School in Shrewsbury, and it wasn't long before he found himself pursuing a career in a Catholic education. His undergraduate work at Marquette University in Wisconsin was soon followed by masters degrees in pasto- ral ministry and secondary administration at Boston College. His first job in education came in the 1980s at the Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota. "I went out there for what I thought was a year," he said. "at turned into 10 years." e school, located in Pine Ridge, is in one of the poorest areas of the country, Welch said. "For me, life is about service," he said. "It's not about work or a job; it's about serving the community where I live." Welch was promoted to director of de- velopment in 1995 and spent two more years in South Dakota before making the first of two trips back to Massachusetts, where he took the assistant principal job at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood. Aer four years, Welch made what was then the most important career change of his life, to become headmaster at Saint John's High School, a position he held for 15 years. While there, Welch oversaw success- ful capital campaigns to fund reno- vations and new construction while keeping tuition increases around 3.5% at a time when similar schools were raising fees as much as 7%, he said. Under Welch's watch, Saint John's landed its first gi of more than $1 million. "We built excitement around the mission of the school," he said. "People believed in what we were doing and sacrificed to be a part of it." In 2016, Welch went back to Red Cloud Indian School in South Dakota to serve as a special assistant to the presi- dent, before leaving again this year to be closer to home in Central Massachusetts. Split duties When word of Welch's return to Cen- tral Massachusetts reached UniBank's board – which includes Saint John's alumni – the directors began to envision a different type of leadership structure. Welch's return sparked an interest- ing idea: What if the directors could convince Welch to become the face of Christopher Foley, president, UniBank PHOTOS/ALAN JUNG Michael Welch, CEO of UniBank for Savings, at its Worcester branch on Gold Star Boulevard

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