(inspiring music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight.

Brian Ray.

Brian is the president of PNC Bank of Central Illinois.

Welcome Brian.

- Thanks Matt.

Appreciate it.

- I appreciate it.

Let's start off, just talking about you.

I know you don't want to, but I want to.

You've been in the banking business a while but you also have a good feel for the community and because of the position you had early on in your career, tell me a little bit about that.

- Well, I think for me community is everything and that's sort of how I grew up.

Right.?

With the roles that my parents played in my life and the role the church has played in my life and friends and everything else, it's all kind of gets centered around community.

And so it has been a big focus for me.

And it's something that I've really loved about being here in the, three and a half almost four years that I've been here.

And it was one of the hardest things to leave when I left Akron, Ohio, because I had such deep roots there and was very, very involved in the community.

- And you and your wife, Vicky you moved here and I think four years ago, and you, when you got here you didn't just kind of explore and kind of see what's going on.

You jumped right in the deep end, which I love.

- Yeah.

- But you jumped right in.

And I think you went into that learning mode of for people like me, I saw it right away and I was like, yes.

And not from a PNC standpoint, just from, we need more people moving here to Central Illinois.

- Yeah - So we're very glad to have it.

- Well, I'm thrilled to be here, it's really been a fun four years and it's been a fulfilling roughly four years.

And like you said, anybody who really knows me knows that that's what I do is I dive in.

And my, the first year that I was here I was sort of asked to put together a business plan.

And I probably surprised my new boss a little bit because the business plan was one bullet point, and that was be known.

And that goes back to community.

Right?

Right.

- It was important for me to be known to the community, so the community could then respond with one in may to know it.

And I think that's sort of what we go through.

That's that give and take that we have in life.

And I can't expect others to be transparent if I'm not transparent first.

And so that's, the first year it was like sprinting a marathon, right?

I mean, Central Illinois is, there's a lot to the community.

There's a lot to Peoria.

There's a lot of history in Peoria.

And I wasn't part of that.

And you can very easily feel on the outside.

Right?

And I just wasn't willing to accept that.

So, I just needed to, sometimes push the doors a little bit to get in.

And I think, in all it's worked out pretty well.

- Yeah, I was lucky enough to meet you before you'd even moved here.

- Right.

- And the first time we met, you were ready to jump in then.

- Yeah - And so I can attest to that and it feels good.

And, the other thing too is, when we're talking about PNC now and what you bring as a leader you kind of don't walk around and say, " Hey I'm the president of PNC Bank."

You look at your team, you're all equals.

And I think that's an impressive thing.

And so talk about what team means to you right now especially during what we've dealt with last 10 months.

- Sure.

Well, I think that what you're talking a lot about is leadership and leadership style.

And I would hope that my employees would agree that my style is service, right?

I don't feel like now I've got 350 people that report to me I report to them, right?

Like I'm here to make their life and to make their job better and easier.

And so I think that's the most important thing, and fortunately, I followed on the heels of a great leader in Doug Stewart.

- All right.

- Who was intimately involved in the community and who people inside and outside of the bank adored, but respected.

Right?

Right - And, there is a difference between those and he had both.

And so, I was fortunate to be able to have some open doors and some open arms because he was who he was.

And I'd like to think that I've continued that, that's important.

- And from his standpoint, even taking it a step further because he was one of those, he's one of those people that you could have written his coat tails he would have led it but he kind of just said, "Hey Brian, this is your show now."

And, I think that's a cool thing because you have to build your team now.

- Right.

- And there's that, uneasiness feel there's a new guy in town, new person in town and I think you've done a very very good job of not just with your team but also community, because your whole team right now they go all in, they have your mentality.

- Yeah.

I'd like to think that.

And I think that they, as they get used to me and as they get used to my style, they understand more and more that I want them to speak up because this isn't about my name being next to PNC on the billboard.

Right?

Right - Yes.

I get to bring the bank to market and yes I am often sort of the front man, if you will.

But the credit goes to them, I mean, what we accomplish, is rarely nor should it be attributed solely to me because if I don't have that diversity in thought and I don't give people autonomy, it's not gonna work.

- All right.

- And, that's what I love about being a leader is really getting to empower people, to bring their thoughts, bring their ideas.

I want to hear that, and I think that helps the team function better.

- Yeah.

So let's talk core business right now, what you do because with COVID we have seen, and I wanna just talk positive.

- Sure.

- But COVID brought in something new, PPP loans.

- Right.

- And so you're, even though you're based here in Peoria, how many banks do you oversee in the region?

- Well, I think what you're referring to is retail branches, - Retail branches.

- Right.

Which is certainly part of my job, but it's a relatively small part of my job.

But we've got 27 branches in Central Illinois and that's in Peoria and it's our outer line areas, Bloomington normal champagne, Decatur, and Springfield.

So, through that footprint, there are 27 sort of retail branch outlets.

And PPP, did it changed everything.

I gave, I did a little video taped message at the end of last year that we sent to clients and some other folks in the community, because I felt that not being able to have sort of my annual holiday gala where I would sort of recap the year.

I thought it was important because so much happened this year.

And, such a big part of that was the fact that, as an institution, we had to completely redefine how we reached our customers.

Now, not to say that digital has not been increasing over the past years.

It has dramatically by digital I mean, online banking and bill pay and all those good things check deposits.

But you you think about our business.

Right?

And we were sort of you can kind of look at it this way, we've been encouraging people for five to seven years about kind of go in this direction.

And then we sort of shut the doors and said, now do it 'cause now you don't have a choice.

(Matt laughing) Right?

So how do we serve our customers through redefining our business?

That was really difficult.

- Yeah.

- And making sure that, we were somewhat of a lifeline and I don't mean that in putting ourselves on a pedestal, we were a distributor of PPP.

We did not originate it.

- All right - Right?

But making sure that we were proactive in getting the information out there educating our customers and non-customers making sure that people were able to sustain through this time period that none of us have ever experienced in our lifetimes.

It was a dramatic year.

And as I said, in my kind of video presentation I've been in banking almost 20 years now, as you know this sort of second career for me.

March through June were probably the three hardest years of my career.

It was emotional.

Customers were emotional.

Businesses were emotional.

I have never gone from being the devil to being the savior in like two hours because they hadn't gotten their loan yet and then they got it.

Right?

I mean people were panicked - And customer service piece.

- Absolutely.

I mean Yeah It was, it's been a tough year, but we've learned so much.

And you know this about me and many people know this about me.

I'm sort of the consummate optimist.

- Yeah.

- Right?

And we would have never chosen to put ourselves in this position, but we've learned so much.

And so we do kind of get out of this, I was talking to one of my employees today, if tomorrow everybody was vaccinated and the doors opened back up and everything was normal.

We are not gonna conduct business like we did last February, - There's no way.

- Because we've learned so much and people have really embraced what we can bring in a different way.

It makes us so much more efficient.

Right?

- It does.

You mentioned something or you alluded to technology and I was, I just started thinking as you were talking I didn't wanna go there, but then I thought how important right now, is that fraud peace with technology and being able to, as a bank to protect your businesses and customers that you have.

- Yeah.

It's huge.

And what I feel very fortunate about, I feel very fortunate to work for the company that I do.

They're very forward-thinking, speaking of Business Forward.

And we have been making investments as a company in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the last 10 years on technology alone.

- Wow.

Wow - And because we know that's where this is all going, right?

Which is not to say that there's ever gonna be an elimination of branches and there might be fewer, right?

Because the services that are required might be a little bit different but that fraud prevention for us, if my customers can't feel comfortable conducting a transaction online, this last 10 months don't work and our whole industry collapses.

- I think what's interesting too is, there is a shift and probably even more now because of what we've gone through of, I'm 50 years old, I still like going into the bank and saying hi to people.

Right.

Right.

- But my daughter's never even been in a bank.

- That's right.

- And so, how do you and your team sit here and try to please every, I guess sector of age, because it's hard, isn't it?

- It is really hard.

And you brought up sort of the perfect analogy, we have two very different populations that we serve.

We serve the younger generation, the teenagers and some millennials and we also serve the baby boomers.

And what's been really interesting over the last 10 months is that for the younger generation, it was no big deal.

This was business as usual for them.

(Matt laughing) But one of my greatest successes through this COVID period has been teaching my parents how to send money via Zelle, Zelle Which is a PNC - All right.

- Or even Venmo or, - Cash App, whatever it is.

- You got it.

Right?

Like, and now they're like, I'm never gonna write another check again.

I'm like, thank you.

Right?

I mean, that's, - Right.

- That's where we're going.

And it is really hard to serve two masters, but we've we've really been doing that for the last 10 years and it's a continuum.

And all this did this past year, is it accelerated it, this we've probably accomplished in the last 10 months, what we might have normally charted out to be the next three or four years.

- Wow.

- So it's not changed us.

It's just accelerated it.

- So does this tell you that I'm age 50 that I just reordered checks.

(Brian and Matt laughing) - All right.

Moving on.

- I'm only a couple of years behind you and I understand.

- All right.

So we're seeing on a serious note we're seeing some businesses close.

- Yeah.

- But, on the flip we're seeing a lot of business open up and some businesses that we have no idea and can even grasp what these businesses are doing.

From a banking lens, how, what do you see?

Are you seeing that?

- I see exactly what you're talking about.

First of all, I can speak specifically to sort of our book of business in Central Illinois.

It's very healthy.

I think that, we definitely saw a dip this year all of our customers, well, not all.

The majority of our customers saw dip this year.

There are some businesses out there that have been thriving for the last 10 months, but the businesses that did particularly struggle between March and June, July, August many of them have had massive recoveries over the last four months where I think that overall they're very healthy.

Now, that being said, as you well know, we are waiting for the second round of PPP right now, CDFI have already started originating as of, I think it was yesterday, we're still waiting for sort of that final guidance from the fed but there is another round that's coming out there.

And I'm just, again, going back to what I first said to you, and the importance of my role being to service.

And, I know that my team feels that way.

We are just, we're ready.

We're ready for this next round.

We're so much better prepared and ready just to get those dollars into the hands of those that really need it.

But it has been difficult.

It has been difficult for business.

And unfortunately, there has been we have seen closures and we've also seen startups.

So, I think it's sort of a natural balance.

- So I, few shows goes talking to Bill McDowell and at Bradley entrepreneurship.

And we're just talking about new business coming in and he thinks this is the right time to start a business.

And so he's seeing a lot of money on the sidelines that are sitting here going, I don't know I may want to dip my toe but now they're sitting here saying a minute, this is all in time.

- Absolutely.

- That's fun.

- It's, I mean, industries have been recreated through this.

I mean, so honestly last January, what was Zoom?

- Right.

- Whoever thought, but they had already built it.

They didn't build it because of this, they built it proactively and look how it's taken hold.

I mean, that's just one example.

- One example.

Right?

Right.

- But there's been a lot of other businesses that have done the same thing and so, Bill is actually a good friend of mine and I think he's a brilliant guy and I think he's right.

I mean, there is definitely an entrepreneurial spirit that is also accelerating during this time period because I think some gaps have been really exposed over the last 10 months.

- Yeah.

And I think this gives us an opportunity too as a community to sell our communities.

- Right.

- There's businesses and people that are migrating out of Chicago area, we'll take them.

- Right.

- We will take anybody from any other Akron.

All right.

And so I think this is a prime time to do it.

One last thing about Bill and Bradley is, there's also a lot of young people, smart people coming into this business world.

That's refreshing.

- Right.

- You hear people pounding millennials all the time and everything I will tell you my millennial daughters are a lot sharper than I am.

(Matt laughing) - Yeah.

They are.

I couldn't agree more all the more reason why we need as leaders to really be open to all of our employees, all the generations because they bring such different experience and knowledge and creativity that it takes all of it.

Right?

And that's where, you need to talk about the handoff from Doug to me I think Doug would be the first person to say, here's this beautiful car but I know that you can improve it.

And, - Right.

- Because he knew it was time for the next generation.

(indistinct) And I'm already trying to prepare that next generation after me.

Right?

- A good leader does that.

So, let's go back to PNC and major community impacts that PNC has all over us, but maybe take it to Central Illinois because I know there's grow up great.

I know the PNC foundation is heavy, heavy dollars into kids and community and the betterment of all communities.

But what are you seeing right now?

Maybe give us a glimpse of 21, 22.

What can we look forward to of helping our communities?

- Sure.

So, on an annual basis, we reinvest in the community through grew up great, through sponsorships, through grants in Central Illinois, to the tune of eight to $850,000 a year.

Most don't know that because I'm not out there (indistinct) we're in a banner to talk about that but we absolutely believe as a company which is one of the reasons that I love being here, that we, that the importance of community.

And we've got to reinvest in the communities where we live and work.

Right?

We just have to do it.

It's a responsibility.

And this year we had to step up that game.

Right?

I mean, we saw it, I don't need to tell you, we saw dramatic effects particularly in the first three or four months of COVID and the shutdown.

And so what did our company do?

Our company, opened up the checkbook and I was fortunate enough to have an additional roughly $120,000 last year to put forth to make sure that we were taking care of things like food insecurity, to take care of paying utility bills, to go to our medical institutions where we were able to provide grants to OSF Unity Point Carl Memorial in Springfield.

I mean, you name it, right?

So what can you expect from us?

We continue to step up.

Right?

I don't think that that budget's getting cut for me next year if anything, it might go up a little bit because that's how important we know that community is.

And we've got to be there.

We've got to be on the front lines of it.

- What do we need to do not just as a country, but just here in Central Illinois, what do we need to do better?

The list is long I know, but if that checkbook was five times larger, what would Brian Ray put some money towards right now?

'Cause you're an outcome guy.

You're a data guy.

Right?

- So this is gonna be an answer you probably didn't expect.

And I didn't expect this question but I'm gonna give you what's on the top of my mind.

What we need is a therapy.

- Yeah.

- Right?

We can't write a check to make sure the folks that live in Central Illinois understand and appreciate how good Central Illinois is.

Right?

Blood cells.

Right?

So you look at the blood in the newspapers about Caterpillar which is an incredible business and institution when they made the choice to go to take with their headquarters up to the Chicago land area.

That was right as I was coming to town, right?

Actually somewhat blame me for that.

It had nothing to do with me, but it was a it was a big gut punch.

And I think, having been in the therapeutic industry for a number of years I would say that we've got a self-esteem problem and no check is going to make that go away.

- Okay - Right.

I think that as community members, we need to learn to appreciate the resources that we have.

We need to appreciate each other more and we need to start coming together.

Right?

Coming together, and I think one great illustration of this, is what I've recently with the homeless continuum.

- Yeah.

- In the city.

Right?

You've now got seven or eight or maybe more agencies that are all working together for one common goal.

And that is what we can do on a much broader basis through community development, economic development, it's social, it's mental, it's physical and spiritual health altogether.

Right?

Like - Right.

I think that mental piece is at the forefront right now.

I think you nailed it.

I think if you talk to any businessman or woman right now they'll sit there and say the mental health of their teams and that compassion that's inside of you each day as a leader that when you go into your school or business bank whatever it may be, that is at the forefront.

And if you don't recognize it you probably shouldn't be a leader right now.

- Yeah.

I had a mentor in Ohio, I'll give him props.

his name was Kevin Thompson.

He was the regional president that I worked for for the better part of 15 years in Ohio.

And, he was, he just led by example.

Right?

He empowered his people.

He didn't micromanage everybody, but what he did more than anything, and why he kept his career going longer than I think he even anticipated was because he loved his people.

He loved serving his people.

And you come to a point in your life, and I think I hit this point when I made the very difficult decision to come here.

I was, I've been a taker.

Right?

We're all takers as we're young.

And it was time to start giving back, in a very meaningful way.

And so that's what my role means to me here.

And that's, what's really important to me.

- And I think that's what you do from what I've seen.

And that's just the straight answer.

And I think that's why I wanted others.

We reach a lot of households with the show and I wanted others to see the positive people of Central Illinois.

And what PNC does?

What your team does?

What the foundation does?

And what Brian Ray does?

So, we are going to have to turn this into show number two I'm gonna have you back.

'Cause I have a thousand other questions and we could go on for community all day, but I want to thank my guest, Brian Ray.

He, this was an awesome show as always, keep up everything that you do for the community.

Thank you.

This is Matt George.

And that's another episode of Business Forward.

(bright upbeat music) (inspiring music)