Karen Kollias, senior vice president at Shore Bank and Trust of Cleveland, brings a passion to community reinvestment that few can match.
Speaking about inner-city credit needs, she dominated the room during a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas conference.
Dressed in a bright red suit with a Save the Children tie, she taunted bankers that their community development efforts were pathetic.
And once she starts talking, just try getting her to stop.
Dallas Fed officials signaled that her time had expired, but she asked the audience whether she could keep going. When everyone urged her to continue, she responded: "Yeah, you'd be scared I'd take you outside."
Who is this dynamo? The American University graduate is an activist at heart.
Ms. Kollias spent almost 20 years protesting against bankers. Her activism brought her into frequent contact with American Security Bank in Washington, one of her favorite places to steer low-income people who needed credit.
The bank hired her in 1986. "Redistributing the wealth would be good," she said in a blunt explanation of why she took the job.
Shortly after NationsBank Corp. bought American Security in 1993, Ms. Kollias found herself overseeing community development projects for the entire Middle Atlantic region.
"Karen is a great banker," said Catherine Bessant, senior vice president at NationsBank. "She understands risk and return, she understands how to make a deal work, and she has excellent credit judgment."
Ms. Kollias left NationsBank last winter to head Chicago-based Shore Bank's expansion into Cleveland, where she directs the single-family mortgage, multifamily rental, and community service programs.
Her message is simple: Lending is not enough. Modern housing projects with pretty gardens fail if banks don't also fund day care facilities and recruit local businesses.
She said, for example, that gang members are still selling drugs in an alley in Cleveland, though it has a beautiful mural financed by a bank. The bank's effort did nothing to drive out the drug dealers.
Bankers also must look at the person behind the data, she said. All too often the industry dismisses a small business that lacks adequate financial statements. If lenders took the time, they'd discover many of these entrepreneurs are excellent credit risks, she said.
Ms. Kollias is just as emotional when praising bankers, often urging them at conferences to give each other hugs.
"I love bankers," she said. "Somebody's got to love them, because they've got a bad rap."
She preaches about community reinvestment constantly, addressing whatever group is willing to pay her way. This fall, she's helping the American Bankers Association put on a community development school and seminar for top executives about Shore Bank's successes.
Bankers flock to her. During a break at the Dallas Fed conference, she was surrounded by well-wishers who wanted information on the programs she runs.
"I have just always had a passion" for community development, she said. "I believe in it. I can feel it. I am a part of it."
