1.0
Chapter I
There Are No Businesses, Only People:
Developing Future Leadership
1.1
Broad, Steady and Deep Leadership
Over the course of 35 years — or a single
founder’s generation — First Republic has grown
organically to become one of the country’s largest banks, with over $155 billion in
total assets. There has been only one
modest bank merger in its history — this is a client satisfaction, compounding
growth story. “We’ve always been focused on providing differentiated, exceptional
client service, nothing else. Our growth has been the outcome of this focus, not
the goal,” reflected Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Herbert. In
looking ahead to the Bank’s future, he said, “If you know your roots, you don’t lose
your way.”
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1.2
Preparing for Growth
Shortly after the management-led buyback of First Republic in 2010, Herbert and team focused on
preparing to surpass $50 billion in total bank assets in a few years’ time, which
would mean entering an enhanced
regulatory environment as determined by the Dodd-Frank Act. “We knew we needed to
bring in additional help and support, and we already had some very good proposals
for capital stress testing advisors,” said Herbert. “So, when a gentleman called
from Goldman Sachs to pitch the assignment, I took the meeting as a courtesy,
really.”
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1.3
Forget the Résumé,Find the Talent
During this growth period, as always, Herbert’s
approach to finding and developing talent throughout the organization was infused
with his entrepreneurial mindset. “The questions entrepreneurs ask are different,
because you are always looking
for similar characteristics for success: energy, passion, focus and a willingness to
try new ideas. In fact, the more you focus on the résumé, the less likely you are to
find the talent.”
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1.4
A Slope, Not a Cliff
In developing future leadership for the Bank,
Herbert and the Board understood that transition planning would look different for
First Republic. “I wanted a slope, rather than a
cliff,” said Herbert. When the
key to success is culture — as it is for First
Republic — succession planning is not just about attracting the right
people and placing them in spots vacated by outgoing leaders. The Bank would need to
take a
gradual approach, developing new leaders and enabling them to work alongside current
leadership, then transitioning people into their new roles. Mike Roffler’s
transition into the Chief Financial Officer role exemplifies this “slope, not cliff”
philosophy.
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1.5
Caring for Culture
As Herbert reinforced the entrepreneurial mindset
of the organization, and expanded and developed its next generation of leadership,
he continued seeking opportunities to seed First
Republic’s values so deeply
into the enterprise that they would grow in perpetuity. “Our values work here
because they’re real — they weren’t written by a committee then distributed to the
rest of the organization,” shared Jason Bender, Chief Operating Officer. “They were
written as a description of the way we have been operating from the very beginning.”
Bender joined First Republic in 1999 and helped to codify the Bank’s values
alongside Dianne Snedaker, then Chief Marketing Officer, while building the Bank’s
first online presence.
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1.6
Core Leadership Team
In addition to the key promotions of Bender and
Richardson, Thornton took on the full banking regions of Los Angeles and Palm Beach,
in addition to his role in the integration of banking and wealth management at First Republic.
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