Episode 390: Berkshire Bank CEO Nitin Mhatre, Not Your Usual Connecticut Yankee in Beantown

From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside the Ice House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision in global business. The dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years. Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now at the NYSE and at ICE's exchanges and clearing houses around the world. And now, welcome inside the Ice House. Here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.

Bookended by a span of 26 years, two particularly poignant films shot key scenes in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. At the end of 1997's Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon's title character heads west over the Mass Turnpike in the vicinity of Stockbridge, Lee and Pittsfield in amorous pursuit of Skyler, played by Minnie Driver. And in the middle of The Holdovers, which is in theaters now, Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and Da'Vine Joy Randolph drive east along Route 2 from the Greenfield-Millers Falls area toward Boston and a gut-wrenching rendezvous with each of their pasts. These are roads I know well. I've been driving them most of my life, most recently over the past couple years while my son was a student at Northfield Mount Hermon School, where many of The Holdovers scenes were shot. Director Alexander Payne made a point of showing how people live in the Berkshires and the work that they do, which is often in education, health care, services or the small business space. And whether a business is big and employs a thousand people or small and employs only 10, integrating with the community is of the utmost importance to achieving success. Companies need to become synonymous with the areas that they serve, whether they're on the East Coast, West Coast, in New England or on the plains. In the last couple episodes, we've heard from business leaders like Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich and WEC Energy Chair Gail Klappa. Both they and other guests we've had on previously focused on their home regions to kickstart their success, whether it's Shaich's initial focus in Boston with Au Bon Pain or Klappa's focus on Milwaukee and the greater Wisconsin area. These two leaders, among others, strive to become one with where they started. Originally founded in 1846 in Pittsfield, Berkshire Hills Bancorp, NYSE symbol BHLB, prioritizes their home region. That philosophy has led so far to over 175 years of success. Now headquartered in my hometown of Boston, Berkshire Bank has become one of the largest regional banks making its home in the Bay State. Our guest today, Nitin Mhatre, is at the forefront of the company's focus on philanthropy and business operations. Whether it's the employees giving their time to others or to the environment, Berkshire strives to make sure that they and the areas that they're in are successful over the long term. In our conversation, we're going to hit on Nitin's journey to Berkshire and the company's initiatives to promote sustainability and community improvement and build the geography overall through what banking always provides. We'll also discuss his leadership style and Berkshire's diverse team. Our conversation with Nitin Mhatre is coming up right after this.

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Welcome back to Inside the Ice House. Remember to subscribe to the show wherever you listen and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Our guest today, Nitin Mhatre, has been CEO of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, that's NYSE ticker symbol BHLB, since 2021. Prior to assuming that role, he spent many years as an executive in community banking at Webster Bank, that's NYSE symbol WBS, which was a staple of Hartford, Connecticut and the Connecticut region where I spent a lot of years as well. Also at Citigroup, NYSE ticker symbol C, in various leadership roles covering consumer-related banking businesses globally. Thanks very much for joining us and welcome to Inside the Ice House.

You were here back in November 2022, I think, to ring our opening bell. You and I were talking about your conversation with our head of listings, Chris Taylor. It's almost a year ago since now. You and I are sitting down here in Lower Manhattan again to record this podcast. What do you remember about that day coming to the exchange?

I mean, you have not spent your whole life in the United States. You were born and raised in India, came here I think in 2000. In fact, when you started with Citi in 1996 as a card sales manager, your areas of focus were focused back on the west regions of India. How did that upbringing on the other side of the world help you, your personality, your leadership style for where you find yourself today?

A guy I worked for in the early part of the 20th century, Ramani Ayer, who was then president and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services Group, that's NYSE HIG. Ramani was a graduate of the IIT, the Indian Institute of Technology. He would always tell me how his parents urged him and his siblings to go out and see the world. Were your parents as influential, or is this your own call?

Prior to your job with Citi, you worked for Asian Paints, a national paint company headquartered in India. Obviously long ago moved away from that field, but for the time that you were there, were there any lessons that did shape what you would actually do when you got into financial services?

You worked so hard to get that engineering degree, but you also added your business degree on top of that. Did that seem to be the combination that you thought you'd need as the whole package as you planned for the rest of your career?

So you had quite a good long run at Webster. What was the draw to ultimately be taken out of Connecticut and find yourself now, you know, downtown Boston with Berkshire?

So let's talk about this company now a little bit. So as we talked about earlier, founded all the way back in 1846, now moved its headquarters to Boston. I went to your website today, looked at where all the locations are, all those X's on the New England map. As the bank grows, how do you maintain the standards and culture that has allowed it almost two centuries of success? Obviously it's got to move forward, obviously it's got to take care of new types of customers and new types of needs.

So Nitin, I read the company history, I saw a couple different leaders prior to your arrival. You know, you come in as an outsider in many respects. What's your personal playbook for walking into a new place where you don't know a lot of people and in some ways you come from the competitor and you've got to sort of win friends and influence people, right?

So I was talking about my time spent on your website over the last couple days getting ready for our conversation. And in addition to looking at the locations of Berkshire Bank, I also looked at the mission statement. And I'm going to quote from it. It says, 'The company possesses the strength and resources of a big bank combined with the heart and attention of a community bank.' With those 100 locations, talk a little bit about the financial strength of the bank and then how do you make sure that that statement holds true?

You know, exceptional client experience. I've been a longtime customer here in New York City of First Republic Bank, and they've certainly made their brand on customer experience, not necessarily on their capital reserve. But when you're in an engagement in one way or another with Berkshire Bank, if I'm walking into a branch or getting on the phone or on the website, what are the things that when you see it you say, 'Aha, that's really what I want to be seeing from my bank, from my company toward our customers'?

So I want to talk about the four key tenets of Berkshire Bank, starting with the push to fuel small business throughout the country. So many of these community institutions were hit hard during COVID-19. Some were able to survive while others unfortunately closed their doors. What has Berkshire been able to do to help small businesses recover and thrive in the post-pandemic, especially as you think about those drives across the Mass Pike or Route 2 that I was talking about? So many restaurants need these services, so many small businesses, and you sort of look at them and you say it's not the same as it was before the pandemic.

Community financing, philanthropy also paramount to the initiative. And one of the pillars in this area is employee volunteer time. How are employees able to step out of the bank setting, maybe take off their tie and jacket, contribute to the betterment of the New England region?

Part of that mission statement that we talked about earlier also includes this: that no two customers are alike and each person has their own unique interest. Often those interests come in relation in one way or another to where folks sit on the socioeconomic strata. What ways does the Best Community Comeback positively impact those in the low- and moderate-income neighborhoods as well as minority mortgage borrowers? I mean, so much of your early part of your career was in the mortgage space. ICE itself is getting into the mortgage technology space. And helping folks stay in their homes is one of the most important things, or find the best mortgage for them.

In so many ways, Massachusetts is a progressive state, leading the way in environmental issues. I've known that for my entire life. The final area of what Berkshire Bank is focused on in terms of these four initiatives is protecting and caring for the environment through low-carbon projects, the use of renewable energy. Certainly seen so much coverage in the Boston area about Cape Wind and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. How can environmental responsibility help a business like Berkshire Bank grow off its success over the past 177 years?

After the break, Nitin Mhatre and I are going to continue to discuss Berkshire Bank's commitment to the community as well as his leadership journey. That's all coming up right after this.

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Welcome back. If you're enjoying our conversation and want to hear more from guests like Nitin Mhatre and Berkshire Bank, remember to subscribe to Inside the Ice House wherever you listen and give us one of those five-star ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts. So before the break, Nitin and I were discussing his path to CEO, his time in banking, and Berkshire's commitment to the community. The Best Community Comeback that we were talking about earlier before the break was announced as a multi-year initiative. It's now been two years since it's been introduced. Are the four key areas that we talked about still on track to reach their goals laid out back in 2021?

Going back about 16, 17 months, in the middle of 2022, Berkshire developed a sustainable financing framework that most notably included a first-of-its-kind $100 million sustainability bond. What's the significance of the bond and how was it received among your customers and the public generally?

Some other media organizations also have their lens focused on Berkshire Bank. You're ranked among the most charitable companies in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal, also recognized as one of America's most trustworthy companies by Newsweek. We talked about this basic feeling that a customer gets when they walk into a branch or open up your app, but what does it mean to be recognized broadly in the community by some of these news organizations that put you up on a pedestal?

Now if we pivot sort of to the guts and technology of banking, if you think about where you started in this industry at Citigroup and through Webster and now Berkshire, and the way we might have interacted with our financial institution, whether it was walking into the branch or getting a statement in the mail and trying to balance our checkbooks or look at all the transactions on a piece of paper and decide what to do, so much of it is now here. I will never probably walk into a branch again to deposit a check. I will take a photo of it. Reflect on sort of where you've seen the evolution of the entire business model and the technologies as it relates to the end customer.

So we've talked about how the bank has evolved in the past 30 years or so since the '90s in terms of its technology and infrastructure. The makeup of the people inside it too has changed. If I think about the progression of BayBank to Bank of Boston to Bank of America, people like Chad Gifford, he was the quintessential banker, the white male leader probably with a largely white male board. You're a diverse person. Your board has become increasingly diverse. What has been your own journey thinking about the diversification of the people in the banking industry?

We talked about some of those earlier episodes where we've had business leaders such as Ron Shaich of Panera Bread, Verizon Business CEO Kyle Malady, Comr and Khan of Deutsche Bank, and others. And we always talk a little bit about what differentiates their leadership style. You talked earlier about how you try to apply empathy to a lot of the things that you do. Talk about some time where you were just brutally challenged and the decision really didn't come easily to you. How did you work through the problem? And what kind of people did you reach out to for advice and mentorship? And ultimately, how did you assert your leadership in that situation?

Talking about mentorship and guidance and counsel, you talked about the refreshment of your board and mentioned a couple of them, among them the former Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth, Karen Polito, and the former President of the Boston Fed, Eric Rosengren. Until 2000 you were in India. You've been in New England for a long time, but you're a more recent transplant to Boston. How do you rely on them to sort of navigate local politics, navigate local traditions, sort of become a deep and embedded member of that particular community?

As we wrap up, sometime around now a CEO will sort of maybe on a Sunday get in front of their computer screen and think about communicating to their employees about the way 2023 has gone and their hopes for 2024. And in so many ways for so many people, it's been such a challenging year. If you and I were sitting in your study on a Sunday and I was looking over your shoulder and you're trying to sort of think about this sort of last 12 months and where you'd like to go, what would you be trying to say?

You're three years into your tenure as CEO of Berkshire Bank. As you think about what Berkshire Bank may look like three, six or nine years from now, where do you see this all going?

Well, it'll be a great story to watch. I'm always happy to come up to Boston to watch it in person. And for now, just welcome back to the New York Stock Exchange. It's always great to have you here.

All right, that's our conversation for this week. Our guest was Nitin Mhatre, CEO of Berkshire Hills Bancorp, that's NYSE ticker symbol BHLB. If you like what you heard, please rate us on Apple Podcasts so other folks know where to find us. And if you've got a comment or question you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show, be sure to leave us a review, email us also at [email protected], or tweet at us at @icehousepodcast. Our show is produced by Lance Glenn with production assistance, editing and engineering for my friend Ken Abel. I'm Josh King, your host, signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening, have a great week, talk to you next time.

Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, and do not sponsor, approve or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.