Many of us dream of more glamorous careers — professional athlete, four-star chef, rock star — but Connecticut banker Mark E. Macomber is right where he wants to be.
“I love my job. I love my community,” said Mr. Macomber, the president and chief executive officer of the $190 million-asset Litchfield Bancorp. “Being the president of a small-town bank? I can’t think of a better job.”
Mr. Macomber, 60, aims to bring that enthusiasm to his role as chairman of America’s Community Bankers. He takes the helm Tuesday at the trade group’s convention in San Diego.
In a recent interview at ACB’s Washington headquarters, Mr. Macomber said he believes bankers have an “obligation” to be active participants in their trade groups. He said one of his top priorities during his one-year tenure will be to get even more members involved in ACB issues and events.
“If we are going to be effective, we can’t have members sitting on the sidelines,” he said.
Member involvement is a source of pride at ACB. More than 600 of its 1,000 members registered for the convention, up 10% from last year, and more than two-thirds of members serve on at least one of ACB’s 18 committees, the group says.
“One of the things that is so appealing about ACB to me is the level of member participation,” he said. “When we come up with a position … that is something that was drafted, put together, created by our members — not edited by our members. It is not a staff-driven, staff-created document that members nod their head about.”
This is not the first time Mr. Macomber has headed a trade group; he is a past chairman of both the Connecticut Bankers Association and the Connecticut Community Bankers Association.
As ACB’s chairman, he says he will focus on the two issues that have long ranked as community banks’ biggest: easing small banks’ regulatory burden and taxing credit unions. He called the banking industry’s fight to tax credit unions “a long slog,” but he insists it’s “a battle worth having.”
“The taxation issue is going to a top-of-the-heap issue,” he said. “It’s one I will push, as my predecessors have. … It’s one that common sense dictates that we should win, and if that means persistence and persistence and persistence, then that’s the way it’s going to be.”
Mr. Macomber began his banking career in the early 1970s, after he got out of the Navy and returned home to Rhode Island. He applied to several banks and accepted an offer at what was then Savings Bank of Newport because, he said, “It was closer to my home than the other three and it had the least cut in pay from the Navy.”
After eight years, working with the branch network and in human resources, he joined Rhode Island Hospital Trust National Bank, where he ran banking operations, then the branch system. Finally, looking to develop lending skills, he moved to its private bank.
But he found he missed not having a lot of contact with the community, and started hunting for a job with a smaller bank. He said his joining Litchfield was serendipity: His wife’s co-worker at a jewelry company had a brother who worked at the bank, and he introduced Mr. Macomber to a consultant Litchfield had hired to overhaul management. (The savings bank was drowning in bad real estate loans.)
That was November 1993, and Mr. Macomber remembers starting work as chief lending officer the Monday of Thanksgiving week. He had not yet made the move from Newport to Litchfield, and still resents that he had to drive two and a half hours on Thanksgiving night so he could be at work Friday morning after the holiday.
“It’s gotten better since then,” he joked. Within three months, he was the bank’s president. “The chairman said, Are you ready? I said, Absolutely.”
Today, in addition to his post at Litchfield, Mr. Macomber is the president and CEO of Connecticut Mutual Holding Co., a $480 million mutual holding company. Its other unit is Northwest Community Bank in Winsted, Conn.
Beyond his passion for banking, Mr. Macomber enjoys golfing, sailing, and photography. He and his wife, Fran, both enjoy traveling, and for the last four years or so they have been exploring national parks. He also makes an annual pilgrimage with three buddies for a long weekend devoted to “the quest for the perfect beer.”
