Bill Allen
Bill Allen started in banking while he was in school at the University of Kentucky, where he also played quarterback for coach Jerry Claiborne’s Wildcat football team. Allen worked at Bank One, now known as Chase Bank, part time in the summers before working there full time after graduating from UK with a business degree and a minor in economics.
“My two older brothers were in banking — both of them still are today — and that piqued my interest,” Allen said of his career choice. “I grew up in West Liberty, in Morgan County in Eastern Kentucky, and I remember walking into the bank on those hot summer days and how cool it always felt inside. People were dressed nicely and everyone was friendly, and I thought, ‘this seems like a nice place to be.’”
Career opportunities with Chase later took Allen and his wife, Ingrid, to Columbus, Ohio, and then to Indianapolis, where their son Beau was born. The family then moved to Louisville and finally back to Lexington when Allen joined Bank of the Bluegrass as president in 2004.
This September, Allen will become Bank of the Bluegrass’ new CEO. Current CEO Mark Herren will maintain his position as chairman of the board, and Chief Lending Officer Tom Greinke will become the bank’s new president.
It’s a planned transition that’s been in the works for some time, bank officials say, and will help ensure stability and continuity as the bank observes its 50th anniversary in 2022 and beyond.
Bank of the Bluegrass is a local, independently owned bank, and you’ve also worked in corporate banking. What are some of the differences?
One is a publicly traded company and the other is a privately held company — that’s a big difference right there. Here we’re making decisions for the long term, and we can solely focus our time, efforts and energy on Central Kentucky. We have 63 employees who truly care about the bank, and more importantly, they truly care about their customers and in doing what’s right by them.
I’ll never forget walking in the door at our downtown location for the first time and meeting Mark Herren. The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘I get to live in Lexington, but this bank also reminds me of the one in West Liberty.’ That was very intriguing to me.
What do you see as the bank’s role in the community?
We are so fortunate at Bank of a Bluegrass because we’re really the only bank here in town that’s locally owned and solely focused on Fayette County and the surrounding counties.
We’ve had so many kids who come into our Romany Road branch with their parents to open their first savings account, for example, and it’s the neatest thing. Again, it’s like that quintessential hometown bank.
From there, Mom and Dad may want to open a home improvement loan or purchase a new home or refinance their existing home, and we can do all of that right there.
And then maybe it’s time to think about planning for retirement. We have a trust department and wealth management area that’s just been growing. We can help with estate planning and with financial planning. And when it comes to how we deliver our technology, it’s hard for me to see where we can’t accommodate and do it at a personal level. That’s really our value-add. We all offer similar products and services, but at the end of the day it’s how you deliver it.
Do you have an estimation of how many loans Bank of the Bluegrass facilitated through the Payment Protection Program?
I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I know we’re well over 300 businesses here in Lexington and probably close to $15 million. Tom Greinke, our chief lending officer and soon to be president, was in charge of those efforts, and we had a team of seven or eight employees who worked nights and weekends for at least a month, if not longer. As you probably know, the rules [regarding PPP] were changing every day. They were building the plane as we were flying and it was crazy at times, but I was so pleased with our process and how many clients that we were able to help.
Do you see signs of the economy opening back up?
We’re definitely seeing more opportunities from a borrowing standpoint. Obviously, last year we did so many PPP loans, and that was the bulk of our activity when it comes to lending, but now we’re getting back to what I’d call normal business, so that’s encouraging.
Speaking of getting back to normal, UK football announced full capacity for games at Kroger Field this season. Do you think Beau will see action at quarterback?
You know, when he gets that chance, whether it’s game one or whether it’s game five, I’m just glad he’s had the opportunity to prepare and to be ready. He seems like he’s having a lot of fun and enjoying everything so, as parents, that’s what makes me happy and my wife happy.
How do you define future success for Bank of Bluegrass?
For us it’s not necessarily about growth — it’s not about adding five branches or anything like that. It’s more about getting better about what we do and how we serve our customers. How do we make our lending process more efficient and more transparent for our customers? How do we create a better experience? We believe that if we take care of our customers and put them first, nine times out of ten good things will happen for those customers, our employees and our shareholders.