Smith & Wilkinson Seeks Chief Credit Officer for Boiling Springs Savings Bank

February 5, 2019 – Scarborough, ME-based recruitment firm Smith & Wilkinson has been selected to help find a chief credit officer for Boiling Springs Savings Bank in Rutherford, NJ.

A new position for the privately held bank, the role involves overseeing credit policy, commercial, residential and consumer underwriting, loan review and special assets/workout, said Smith & Wilkinson. The chief credit officer will also attend certain board meetings and will sit on the loan/credit, asset-liability and asset recovery committees.

Strategy, leadership and administration responsibilities of the role include: working in conjunction with executive leadership, curating and maintaining the bank’s credit policy guidelines to protect the credit quality of the organization; providing direction, supervision and support to all areas and employees within underwriting, portfolio management, loan review, credit policy and special assets/workout; and monitoring staff in daily tasks, operations and quality control.

Job Responsibilities

The job also involves underwriting, loan policy, credit approval and loan review duties, including: maintaining the segregation of an independent credit risk function; setting governing standards and directives for the underwriting of credit inclusive of credit limits, industry exposures, collateral advance rates and evaluation guidelines, financial performance benchmarks and thresholds, general pricing guidelines and credit offering templates.

The chief credit officer will provide for the efficient enforcement of credit policy during the approval process to ensure validation of policy and underwriting compliance, said Smith & Wilkinson. The individual will also be charged with reviewing and approving/declining commercial loans, including construction, commercial and multi-family loans prior to their submission to the loan committee; overseeing the appraisal engagements and reviews to ensure appraisal independence; managing the process, and leading negotiations, for all participation loan sales and purchases; and preparing and distributing credit information covering loan quality trends, growth trends and loan product concentrations.

The individual will also participate as a member of the bank’s asset/liability management committee (ALCO), loan/credit and asset recovery committees; participate in the bank’s senior management and officer meetings; and participate in the bank’s annual planning and budgeting meetings.

Requirements 

Candidates must have upwards of 15 years’ experience in credit administration, with expertise in commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, residential and consumer lending and loan portfolio management, said Smith & Wilkinson. They should also have a bachelor’s degree or higher with a concentration in business or finance and/or equivalent work experience. An MBA/graduate degree is preferred for the job; completion of banking school programs is desirable.

Prospects are required to have experience in staff management and development, experience at the senior management level and experience working with executive management and boards.

Boiling Springs Savings Bank is a provider of financial services to individuals and businesses. It serves Bergen, Essex, Passaic and Morris counties in New Jersey. The bank has 17 branches located in Rutherford, Lyndhurst, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park, Wyckoff, Glen Ridge, Glen Rock, Hillsdale, Mahwah, Clifton, Upper Montclair, Lincoln Park, Montville, Lake Hiawatha and Florham Park. The Boiling Springs Savings & Loan Association was formed 80 years ago with the combination of the Rutherford Mutual Loan and Building Association, which had been founded in the 1870s to provide thrift and home financing services to a growing community, and the East Rutherford Savings, Loan and Building Association.

Boutique search firm Smith & Wilkinson, founded in 1998, focuses on the banking industry. Its specialties include credit unions, non-profits and associations, insurance, wealth management, finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, healthcare management, physicians, retail and manufacturing, and engineering. Last year, the firm had 125 placements, including the president and CEO of a bank in South Easton, MA; president and CEO of a bank in Biddeford, ME; and chief financial officer for a bank in Elizabethtown, NY.

New Officer Level Roles

A handful of new C-suite titles have been cropping up at businesses around the globe, according to leading search consultants. A recent report by Odgers Berndtson found that executives climbing the corporate ladder are in hot pursuit of titles that include the words “chief” and “officer.” Among them: chief happiness officer, chief privacy officer, chief people officer, chief digital officer, chief knowledge officer, chief customer officer, chief luminary officer, chief innovation officer and chief observance officer.

Kodak and Dell a few years ago appointed chief listeners; Facebook has chief privacy officers; Microsoft has a chief people officer; Coca-Cola has a chief quality and product integrity officer. Steve Jobs called himself chief know-all.

Here is an overview of unique officer-level positions being filled by leading recruitment firms from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

The Onstott Group placed Christina Van Houten as chief strategy officer of Mimecast Limited, an email and data security company. Managing director Scott Tucker led the assignment. Ms. Van Houten is charged with driving corporate development, product management and market strategy as part of building out Mimecast’s email security, archive and cyber resilience cloud platform.

Beverly Hills, CA-based executive recruitment firm Ventura Partners has placed Courtney Gruber as the new chief retail officer for drybar, a blowout hair salon chain. Ventura founder and partner Julie Ford led the search. The chief retail officer role, more commonly known as vice president of retail, encompasses running all retail operations.

Higher Education Leadership Search has been selected by the University of Texas of the Permian Basin to lead in its search for a chief compliance officer. Consultants Geralyn Franklin and Alan Medders are leading the assignment. The University of Texas of the Permian Basin is a general academic university of the University of Texas System.

Executive search firm McCormack+Kristel has been retained by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to lead in its search for a chief program officer. Managing partner Joseph McCormack and partner Michelle Kristel are leading the assignment. LAHSA is committed to ending homelessness through leadership, advocacy, and management of program funding.

Freehold, NJ-based Prodigy Sports, a nationwide leader in top-level sports recruiting, has placed Gord Lang as chief growth officer with Engine Shop. Founder and chief executive officer Scott Carmichael led the search. Mr. Lang had been chief growth officer at Octagon Marketing, which he joined in 2001.

The housing group Win, formerly Women In Need, has been transforming the lives of New York City’s homeless families for more than 30 years. The organization recently enlisted executive recruitment firm Bridge Partners to find a chief program officer. Partner and co-founder Tory Clarke is leading the search along with partner Janet Albert.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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