- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Holy Name.

This place is different.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Here when you need us most, now and always.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

Johnson & Johnson.

The Fidelco Group.

And by Caldwell University.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

Building connections, driving business growth.

And by ROI-NJ.

Informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

[MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with our longtime friend, Ira Robbin, CEO of Valley Bank.

Good to see you Ira.

- Good to see you, thank you for having me.

- So many things to talk about.

Ira, let's jump into this.

You have told me in offline and on-air conversations we had, you've also been on our Lessons in Leadership program to talk about your view of leadership.

But you have said that the business, the relationship between customers and banks and businesses overall, have changed forever.

What does that mean?

- I think COVID has, this is one of the benefits, to be honest with you, when you think about COVID and customers, employees really have the ability to re-engage and re-establish relationships, which from a banking perspective, as well as other businesses, really creates that value proposition.

You know, as we think about serving our customers and what that customer experience model should really look like, it's how do we think about interactions, experiences that can be digitized versus those that should be person to person relationships.

And I think that's the evolution that many companies are going down.

We're really migrating down that path.

And I think it's a benefit to both the customer and the company as well, as we think about what are those high touch experiences that we wanna make sure that we focus on.

- So it's so interesting.

One of the things I know about Valley, because I've been leading a leadership academy, a Valley Leadership Academy, coaching around management, communication and leadership at Valley for several years now.

And so much of the focus in my leadership work is around the ability to interpersonally connect with other people, easier said than done.

Ira, is it harder for particularly younger people, from your view, who would get recruited into the bank, recruiting good people is hard enough as it is, to engage interpersonally because they're so obsessed with this.

- Yeah.

I think, you know, they lose the value of what a relationship is and, you know, it's our responsibility.

Just like we teach them about many things from a development perspective, personal career growth, you know, part of it is, is teaching about the value of a relationship.

But one of the things we can do is make sure we focus on the right types of experiences that should be a relationship and understand that they're probably correct in many instances about certain types of interactions that should be digitized.

And how do we make sure that we focus on digitizing the right ones and enhancing the experiences on the relationship components across the- - Ira, give me an example.

I'm sorry for interrupting.

Give me an example of something that definitely automation technology digitize communication.

That's the way it goes.

But another case, you gotta be at least on the phone, if not face to face.

- Yeah.

I think, look, when you're looking to solve a problem or a bigger solution for someone, those are relationship type of conversations that people should have.

And we do many things across our organization when it comes to balance transfers, when it comes to balance inquiries, changing addresses, these are experiences that really should be digitized and we're wasting individuals times and can be probably creating a bad customer experience by looking to put these into a relationship type of model.

- So, okay.

So it's a balancing act and you, it's interesting, I have not heard a corporate executive say that there's been a significant benefit from COVID in a long time, but the pivoting.

- You know- - The adapting, but also I know for Valley and for other banks, and I'm just saying, I'm not saying this because Valley is one of our partners and we work with them, but a lot of banks have done this, but expanding your portfolio of services around payroll protects PPP, that was a big deal.

That wasn't part of the portfolio four years ago, three years ago, correct?

- Not at all.

I mean that specific product definitely wasn't but the concept of providing innovative solutions for our customers was something we always attempted to really do.

But if you think about the PPP component, right, how much of that really was digitized versus how much needed to be a relationship.

And if you look through the process and work stream of what that looked like, you know, initially, it was a relationship.

How do you have a conversation with a customer to really understand what's important to him or her, what opportunities they have based on the new legislation and guidance that came out?

But then what are the components of that process that could be digitized using DocuSign, using the ability to fund an account.

And it was important for us to make sure that we were clear with our customers how to get an efficiency and an experience that was appropriate for them from a digitization perspective.

It was just as important to make sure that we listened to them in the beginning, right?

God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.

And when you think about that component of how we connect with our customers, making sure we listen is critical to the right types of conversations.

And that's important for us to really look through the customer experience and really begin to identify what are those high touch points that we want our customers and our employees to really be connected on from a relationship perspective.

So, the onus is really on us, Steve.

- You know, and I wanna make it clear that we were, the Caucus Educational Corporation, was a recipient of one of those loan slash grants from the federal government, the PPP Initiative.

And we understood how complex that was.

But Ira, let me try this.

The future, huge question.

Not just the future of banking, but the future of technology and banking change forever and moving forward at a rapid pace.

- You know, I was sitting there talking to our employees, we did a town hall the other day, and we were talking about just what's changed in the banking landscape.

I mean, when I first started in banking, there was 12, 13,000 banks, charter banks, across the entire country.

Today we're down to five, 6,000 chartered banks and you can look at the industry and say, it's an issue that's contracting, it really is, it's not a real growth industry.

But when you expand the horizon and look at it, there's more fintechs that have come into the industry today and fintechs provide, you know, traditional banking experiences, payments, delivery solutions.

- Ira, sorry for interrupting.

Define a fintech.

- So, yeah.

It's a financial technology organization focused on investing and changing components of banking, right?

So when you think about how you think about the payment verticals that we have across our organization, some of these different fintech companies have now come in and looked at just that component of it and tried to enhance and modernize what that traditionally looks like and many types of payment verticals as well.

So when you look at the fintechs that have now come into the industry, when you expand the horizon, this is the golden age of banking from my perspective, Steve.

- The golden age, Ira?

- Golden age.

You have more capital flowing into the banking industry than we've ever had before.

You have more talent flowing into the banking industry, people that want to work in the banking industry.

So when we think about the value proposition and what opportunities we have as an organization, it's not just to change what the interaction looks like with our customers, but our industry is changing dramatically and that is a blessing from my perspective.

When I look at as a CEO, how do we think about strategy, vision very differently than what we looked about before.

And we have opportunity to really grasp that.

We have opportunity to bring people into our organization that would have never, ever imagined coming into the banking space today.

And when you bring wonderful people into the banking space, the creativity, the excitement that comes from that, it's amazing.

And we're seeing real, real focus on ability to iterate and to change what the value proposition is of a bank today versus what it was two, three years ago.

And Steve, I believe honestly, the iteration is going to accelerate at an exponential pace that we have no ability to really comprehend.

And how do we think about continuing to iterate as we move forward, change in organizational structure, change in workflow.

These are amazing opportunities from my mind that you would have never associated with a traditional bank before.

- Ira, you took over as the leader of the bank at what age?

- 42.

- One of the youngest CEOs around, not just in the state and the region, but the nation.

And I should also disclose that Ira was a coaching client of mine many years ago.

He was not the CEO.

He was in the finance arena and I got to know him very well and we look forward to continuing to have important conversations about not just banking and the relationship between customers and their banks, but the impact of technology, but without losing the interpersonal side of this, Ira, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you so much Steve.

I really appreciate the time.

- You got it.

That's Ira, I'm Steve.

We'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- Steve Adubato here.

We welcome back Rick Thigpen, Senior Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at PSEG.

We're not talking energy here.

We are talking military history.

Rick has been doing a series of interviews with us on important figures.

New Jersey-based and other leaders, part of a powering equity and social justice initiative powered by Rick and his colleagues.

Today, we focus on general Norman Schwarzkopf.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Rick?

- Born in Trenton, New Jersey.

The grandson of a German immigrant.

- Tell us a little bit.

We'll show some pictures, we'll show some pictures of the general.

Track his history back to the state and his international implications as a military leader.

- Well, he's the grandson of German immigrants.

As you mentioned, a native of great Trenton, New Jersey.

Just reminded everybody how much of an impact New Jersey continues to have on American history.

His father was the first superintendent of the state police.

And in that capacity was the lead investigator in the infamous or famous Lindbergh kidnapping.

- Lindbergh trial.

Lindbergh trial, where his child was kidnapped and it was taken place in the Flemington courthouse, I believe in 1932.

- That's right.

- He was also a Colonel in the United States army.

And he passed that onto his son, who we now know became a four-star general, general Norman Schwarzkopf, who's famous to us all for Operation Desert Storm.

At the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he was the commander of the United States central command, which involved that part of the world.

And in that capacity, he coordinated all of the land operations for the over 250,000 U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm.

We all know that was a successful military operation.

It earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

It earned him enormous popularity and fame as successful military leaders frequently do, I can just mention a few like general Eisenhower would be the most recent example of that.

And he was a very successful leader.

He made a case that a successful military leader needs character and strategy.

And if you have to do without one do without the strategy.

So he's someone we admire, they called him Stormin' Norman.

He comes from New Jersey.

He made a meaningful impact on our country's history and that he was a successful leader of a very big military operation.

And he's someone we all know.

He retired with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and yet another New Jerseyan who left their mark on the United States of America and arguably on the globe.

And Steve, I will jump in and just mention two other names very quickly.

One is general Ray Odierno from Rockaway, New Jersey, a four-star general, and commander of the U.S. Army's fourth infantry division that captured Saddam Hussein at that time, he later became the Army Chief of Staff.

Very successful gentleman from Rockaway.

And then there's general Peter Pace from Teaneck, New Jersey.

Another four-star general who became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Another one who had enormous impact on our country.

So New Jersey continues to make enormous contributions.

And we would be remiss to forget that young woman who was a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor named congresswoman Mikie Sherrill from the 11th congressional district, who's in office today.

A former military leader, now a member of Congress.

And we shall see what the future has in store for that young lady, but she's enormously talented and capable of doing even more than she's doing today, and yet another example of how New Jersey and public service continues to have an impact on this country.

- You know, again, part of this series, Powering Equity and Social Justice, Rick has joined us and we did another full segment on the legacy, the impact of the great general Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State and a whole range of other important national titles.

But one of the things Rick, that we've learned is that it's important to feature these people, because if we do not understand our history, if we do not understand who these people are, it's hard to put things in perspective today.

So here's my question, Rick, you mentioned several military leaders who've come out of New Jersey, not just general Schwarzkopf.

Do you believe, and I don't want this to be a trick question, but it is something I've been thinking about.

Do you believe that military leadership, then describe the leadership that everyone you just mentioned in this segment, their kind of military leadership actually prepares people for public service outside of military leadership, Mikie Sherrill ran for congress, is in congress, we don't know what the future is going to be.

But it's a long one way of asking is military leadership in any way, significantly different from leadership in other arenas that are not military centric.

- Well, military leadership certainly requires enormous discipline and a commitment to your country.

Mikie Sherrill for instance, was in the first graduating class in the Navy where women were eligible for combat, she's a little bit part of history.

general Odierno was the grandson of Italian immigrants.

general Pace was the son of Italian immigrants.

So the military is also part of that great American melting pot, where people no matter where you come from, have a chance to prove yourself as an American to make a great contribution in the form of public service.

It does instill discipline.

It instills commitment to your country.

It instills a sense of paying attention to what's right and what's wrong.

And so arguably, a military training is one of the greatest ways to serve your country, and it can clearly prepare you for public service.

We all know that some military leaders are not appropriate for public service, but many have shown that they are.

And our country has a long line of military leaders.

You know, a higher elected office, I used general Eisenhower, but you can go back to general Washington, to general Andrew Jackson, to general William Henry Harrison to general Zachary Taylor, and none of us could ever forget general Grant.

So our country has a long history of military leaders serving in high elected office.

It is a great way for people to serve their country.

And many of these people that I've talked about today from New Jersey have an immigrant background.

And I think it's just a fantastic story of why we are the greatest nation on this earth, Steve.

So I just appreciate the opportunity to talk about it.

I think the more we talk about it, the more we come together and recognize that, Steve, you come from a different background than I do, but that's why this is a great country because we can work together to make America better by contributing in our respective fashions.

- Absolutely right.

And by the way, our great producers behind the scenes, will show pictures of all these different people and try to bring their faces and some of their experiences to life.

But we encourage you as we put the names of those leaders up to do your own research and find out more.

Hey, we cannot thank you enough for putting military leadership and perspective, particularly those who come from Jersey as we continue to engage in powering equity and social justice.

Thank you, Rick.

- And Steve let me close on one high note.

I met general Powell at Seton Hall University when he came to speak.

He's the only non New Jerseyan we talked about, but he has been to New Jersey and I had a great experience with him at Seton Hall, he was such a gentleman, a thoughtful man, a world leader.

It was just remarkable to meet him.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And meeting general Powell for me when he was promoting America's Promise, talking about volunteerism, was an extraordinary opportunity as well, I was in awe of his presence.

Hey Rick, thank you so much, my friend.

- Thanks Stephen.

Thank you for powering equity and social justice.

- Yeah, and let me finally disclose that PSEG, is not just a significant supporter of our work, but the work of NJ PBS, a whole range of programs there as well, they support public broadcasting.

Thank you, Rick.

- Yes.

Thank you, Steve.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

To watch more Think Tank with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by state assemblywoman, Nancy Muñoz, who's the deputy minority leader in the lower house of the assembly, and also a nurse by profession.

Good to see you, Nancy.

- Nice to see you too, Steve.

- Put this in perspective for us.

So many issues to talk about, but as we do this program at the end of 2021, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on, confusion at the State House around vaccine mandates.

Because you're a public health expert, you've been in the business, you've been on the front lines, You've volunteered your services, the worst time on COVID.

Should there be a vaccine mandate for every member of the state legislature, A.

And B, should they show that they are vaccinated if they are?

- Well, you know, it is a complex issue.

I believe in vaccines.

Obviously, as you said, I'm vaccinated.

I had all three, including the booster.

But I've also am a vaccinator, I have volunteered as recently as last weekend, vaccinating kids, the five-to-11-year-old group.

And so, I'm very much pro-vaccine.

Whether we should mandate that every legislator received the vaccine, we don't mandate that any place else in the state.

So, if we don't mandate that any place else in the state, do we require our lawmakers to be vaccinated?

You know, the issue with vaccines right now is that the majority of people in New Jersey have been vaccinated.

70% to 80% have been vaccinated, have received at least the first dose.

65-year-olds and older, it's 95% have been vaccinated.

So, do we mandate a vaccine card?

And there's some resistance because of, there are people who have natural immunity from having been infected with COVID.

And, you know, I've had this discussion with the testing companies, the pharmaceutical companies.

When do we get to a point where we can do a test that says, "You know, you've had the COVID, you've had COVID, and how do we test for that natural immunity?"

So, you know, again, I encourage everyone to be vaccinated.

I think that we have the data to prove that it is safe and effective.

You know, we've given 400 million doses.

400 million doses, and 7,000 people have died, which is a 0.002%.

So we know it's safe.

- But Assemblywoman, here's the other part of it.

You have always been a reasonable, moderate, Republican whose common sense matters.

And frankly, that's not my point of view, Everyone sees, not everyone.

People who know you know this, that science dictates, and healthcare dictates, and medicine dictates how you do things.

For a significant number of Republicans in your party who believe that the vaccine is an overstep, the vaccine itself is an overstep, the pushing of the vaccine is an overstep.

That President Trump, yes, he got the vaccine, he and his wife did, but they didn't really promote it.

That government conspiracy that... What do you say to your colleagues when you know this is a public health issue and not a political issue?

- Oh, that's a very good point because the majority of my colleagues have been vaccinated.

For the colleagues who are opposed to the mandate to get into the State House, for them it's an issue about, they call it liberty.

It's a really tough-- - They called it tyranny, some of your colleagues, the quotes are here, "It's tyranny," "It's against the democracy, how could they..." That didn't help, Nancy, and that's not even partisan or political.

That just doesn't help.

- I agree that it doesn't help.

And, you know, I wouldn't make it all Republicans.

And I think we have to be very careful - No, no, no, no, absolutely not.

- about that, yeah.

Yeah, that's all - Vocal Republicans who were there.

- And you know what?

I look at this from the healthcare perspective as well, Steve.

You know, if you look at the number of healthcare workers who are refusing to be vaccinated, it's not a Republican or Democratic issue.

- No, it's not.

- For me, it's an education issue.

It's an issue of education, of understanding.

Number one, that we know from the data that it's safe.

But number two, that this is not an experimental drug.

This, the technology, and we believe in science.

The technology to develop this vaccine in a quicker manner than it's been done in the past, it's been in the works for decades.

So we should be celebrating the fact that we have got this technology more quickly than we have in the past.

Listen, my father had polio.

My mother's first patient ever died of tetanus.

I've taken care of patients who have had meningitis.

So we know that vaccines are important, and vaccines work.

But we know that it's safe.

It's not tyranny.

The other issue is that we, I think the issue for some of my colleagues was that they were requiring a policy that didn't apply anywhere else.

From my colleagues who oppose it, they wanted to be able to vote in person.

The speaker made it available to vote by, you could vote virtually.

And two of my colleagues did vote virtually, 'cause they weren't able to get there.

One tested positive for COVID.

- We'll see how this is gonna play out.

And I don't want, again, it's not about just that issue.

Because again, we'll date ourselves as we've seen in 2022.

But, I wanna ask you one thing really quickly on this.

The role of Governor Murphy in leading in connection with COVID two years in, please just succinctly describe what he's done well and what he hasn't.

- Well, I think that one of the things that I, you know, people ask me what I heard on the campaign trail, and one of the things I heard on the campaign trail is an overreach of the executive branch.

And so, I think what he's done at the beginning, and I was part of the conversation, was to get more volunteers.

You know, every county had volunteers.

I'm part of the Union County Emergency Medical Corps volunteer group, I was testing in March.

So one of the things that we did really well at the beginning is, we enlisted volunteers and we really organized to get effective testing.

And those processes were good.

We've now, and we put in executive orders, but I believe at this point, what we've not done as well, is it's time for the legislature to have a voice.

You know, we have been kept out of the process.

The legislature and the executive branch together make our policies and make our legislation.

And we have been kept out of that.

That's what we've heard loud and clear.

We should be part - Got it.

- of the discussion.

- Assemblywoman, only managing time, real quick, got a minute left.

Real quick on childcare.

We're doing a series called Reimagine Child Care, connecting it to the economy of the state economic revival in the state.

Childcare and economic vitality.

- Well, you know, I think we just passed a piece of legislation last, was it on the second?

Important piece of legislation, to give childcare credits to more people in the state.

What we need to do with childcare is make sure that we allow childcare providers the ability to provide that childcare.

Most people, middle-class people, working-class people, want childcare to be close to home, with people that they know.

They don't wanna be regulated by the government.

They want to be able to have that option, to go to these providers who they know, and having a credit that goes directly to that family member, to make those decisions.

People make wise decisions when they can make them for themselves.

And they can make economic decisions based on what's best for them.

As opposed to allowing the governments to say you can only go to certain childcare providers.

- Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz is not just a nurse who's making a difference in volunteering, but she's also the deputy minority leader in the state assembly.

Thank you so much, Assemblywoman, appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Holy Name.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Johnson & Johnson.

The Fidelco Group.

And by Caldwell University.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by ROI-NJ.

- Data shows that many patients have avoided seeking critical health care in the wake of COVID-19 for fear of contracting the virus.

Delaying medical care can have serious consequences, so you should never second guess or ignore your symptoms.

At Holy Name Medical Center we have measures in place to prevent infectious disease from spreading, we're clean, we're open and we're safe for all your health care needs.