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DIVIDENDS
Banking on Relationships F
rank Appleby is a self-described “relationship guy.” It’s what has steered his entire career and ultimately led him to Mississippi State.
“I became the Assistant to an Assistant to the Assistant Personal Banker at First National Bank and Trust Company of Evanston, Illinois,” he says with a smile. “It was an hour and 40-minute commute from the university!” It was there that he developed his strengths in customer service and personal relationships and gained the bank management’s support to pursue his MBA from Northwestern University. He “cut his teeth” in banking there and remained at that bank for upwards of 13 years until it was acquired by Bank One, one of the country’s top 10 banks at that time. “I was more entrepreneurial than large banks prefer,” he shares, recalling his desire to make an employment move. “I was recruited at that time by a mid-sized bank to develop and lead their lending department.” From the early stages of Appleby’s Chicago area career, he began making loans to thoroughbred horse owners and trainers who were among the best in the business, such as members of the syndicates who owned Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew and Northern Dancer. The renowned Arlington Park racecourse was nearby. “I began reading the trade journals to stay on top of the business,” he shares. “And I became fascinated. But I didn’t have the resources to become a real participant in the ‘sport of kings’ at the time.” As his career moved forward, larger banks were continually buying smaller and mid-sized ones. His employer was bought yet again, and Appleby was tiring of having to adapt to new cultures each time. He decided he should try to create his own bank with his own culture, with the goal of its being acquired in the future by a larger institution. In 1999, with that in mind, he organized The Peoples’ Bank of Arlington Heights, recalling it as “one of the best and most enjoyable experiences of my career.” The endeavor paid off. In a little more than 16 years, he had built such a successful business that he received a very nice offer to acquire Peoples’. He and his board agreed to it, making sure his employees’ jobs would be secure. Appleby continued to work for the acquirer, as well, until he fulfilled his obligations there.
Photo by Beth Wynn
M I S S I S S I P P I STAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
“We moved to Chicago with $400 in my pocket,” Appleby relates. “But we had an apartment in student housing, so that part was taken care of. It was September of 1980, and there was a recession going on, but I was too naïve to know. It took me three months to find a job.
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Being the son of a Methodist minister meant he spent his childhood growing up all around Mississippi as his father moved from pastorate to pastorate. An undergraduate degree in business administration from Millsaps College provided him the background to launch his banking career with an entry-level training position at First Federal Savings & Loan in Canton. Soon after, he married, and his wife was accepted into the MBA program at the University of Chicago.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
By Kathy Kenne
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