Florida Banking April 2022

move forward, my goal is to partner with both Tony and Tom to scale for the future.” Zernick said: “Our theme for the year is the cross pollination of all our business lines. This really took foundation during PPP. All of us, regardless of the product line we served, came together to take care of those employees that needed a paycheck.” During the pandemic, the leadership team initiated a weekly company-wide “What’s Next” call to update the company on products, services and successes. “When we came out of PPP, we made a decision to keep that same level of communication and continue to leverage each other. We have become amazingly transparent between the divisions,” Zernick said. “Folks who join us realize we’re very entrepreneurial and very open as an executive team. Employees at most billion-dollar banks don’t have easy access to their CEO or division president. And we’re the opposite of that. We believe that our employees are

BayFirst Bank, Continued from page 9

Kids can download BayFirst’s interactive, kid friendly app to help build money management habits and learn how to save. Not to mention, the Club’s mascot is a friendly golden retriever named Cash. “Cash embodies the personal side of community banking. Even though we are progressive in the way we approach banking, we are still a traditional community bank with the personalized, friendly service that customers would expect,” Leo said. BayFirst Bank also offers unique products and services to reach the underserved in its community. “We are committed to corporate social responsibility,” Leo said. “We take responsibility toward reaching the underserved and supporting those needs in our community as part of our central corporate mission.” BayFirst’s NuStart Checking account program is designed to help those in difficult credit circumstances

get their banking back on its feet. After 12 consecutive months without any non-sufficient funds, the NuStart account can convert to a checking account of the customer’s choice. In addition, the bank has a business lending program that focuses on reaching out to minority-owned businesses, as well as a special team of mortgage loan originators known as the PEACE (providing equitable access to credit envoys) Team, which is dedicated to reaching minority communities and low-income borrowers. BayFirst also recently celebrated the opening

high performing because they have access to us and because we engage with them.” At the core of BayFirst’s culture is a desire to meet the needs of all its stakeholders, including employees, customers, shareholders, and the community. “We’ve developed the most attractive set of employee benefits available. Last year alone we introduced paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child, student loan assistance, and childcare match, just to name a few,” Leo said. Staying true to its

“WHEN WE CAME OUT OF PPP, WE MADE A DECISION TO KEEP THAT SAME LEVEL OF COMMUNICATION AND CONTINUE TO LEVERAGE EACH OTHER. WE HAVE BECOME AMAZINGLY TRANSPARENT BETWEEN THE DIVISIONS.”

- THOMAS ZERNICK

mission to help both employees and customers achieve “what’s next,” the bank introduced the NextMortgage employee home loan program. The program provides employees fixed rate, secondary market mortgage loans at or below the bank’s cost to make and sell the mortgage. “We offer these types of benefits because we believe an engaged team provides superior customer service and attracts new customers, providing more profit to our shareholders, a portion of which can be shared to further increase compensation and benefits,” Leo said. “And the cycle continues … success breeds success.” “I believe that we have achieved what we have because we lead by example and because we hire the best,” Zernick said. “It’s been a rewarding experience to see our bank go from $100 million dollars when I joined to a billion dollars today.”

of a loan production office and financial resource center located in the Newtown Community of North Sarasota — the first of its kind in this historically underserved district with a rich African American heritage. Leo credits his collaborative leadership team for the bank’s rapid growth and diversification. The bank recently announced key executive promotions: Tom Zernick, who served as president of the SBA lending division CreditBench, has been promoted to bank president. Robin Oliver has been promoted to chief operating officer while remaining the company’s chief financial officer. “We’re now a public company, so that’s certainly very new to us,” Oliver said. “We’ve got a great team, and great technology, and we want to use these resources in the most efficient way possible. As we

10 — FLORIDA BANKING THE VOICE OF FLORIDA BANKING