NewHavenBIZ

6 n e w h a v e n B I Z | N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m By Michael C. Bingham O N T H E R E C O R D | Q & A Man in the Middle (Market) New KeyBank market president Jim Barger is in a hurry to get to know — and become known in — the Connecticut business community Boston native Barger is a U.S. Navy veteran who has spent 26 years in banking, most recently as market president and head of sales for the bank's Rochester, N.Y. market since 2013. He holds a BS (physics) from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Cornell. When a new president arrives in a brand new market, how do you learn the ropes in the new community ASAP? I faced a similar situation six years ago when I took over as market president and head of commercial banking in Rochester. So I have a sense of what went well that time, and what could have gone better. So I'm doing what I can here to execute as efficiently as I can. First priority here is to meet the team, meet the Key bankers. What is at the core of your mission here as market president? We're not here for status quo; we're here to grow. And to grow, we need more people. So I'm interviewing — planning on hiring very good commercial bankers in the [Connecticut] market and in Boston as well. So first priority is getting to know our operations and our people, then getting to know the other bankers in the market. And then interspersed with all of this is getting to know the community. e bankers are getting me out [of the office]. I'm meeting clients, getting to know our customer base. So there are a lot of things to do. What's your message to your new team? Connecticut and Boston are growth markets for KeyBank. And we're going to treat them as growth markets. We're going to aggressively pursue the market using all the resources that KeyBank has to bear. How is that message being received by your new team? at [message] has been very well received by the commercial bankers and others as well. Because it's not just true in commercial banking; it's true of all our lines of business. In announcing your hiring the bank said it would be making a 'greater T his summer James R. Barger arrived in New Haven to succeed Jeff L. Hubbard as Connecticut and Massachusetts market president and sales leader for KeyBank, the super-regional Cleveland- headquartered bank with $144 billion in assets. e KeyBank brand name entered Connecticut in 2016 with the company's acquisition of First Niagara Bank, headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y. Six years earlier First Niagara acquired NewAlliance Bank of New Haven, the successor institution to New Haven Savings Bank, the mutual savings bank founded in 1838. Plenty of longtime New Haveners still refer to KeyBank's 195 Church Street headquarters building as the 'New Haven Savings Bank building.' In southern New England KeyBank occupies a market niche in between multinational giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and Connecticut-based regional banking companies such as People's United.

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