Long time Meadowlands Chamber member Boiling Springs Savings Bank, one of northern New Jersey’s largest savings banks and provider of financial services to individuals and businesses for nearly 80 years, recently announced the appointment of James D. Nesci as its new president.
We sat down with Mr. Nesci, who will now oversee all operations at the institution’s 17-branches, to learn more about his plans and vision for the bank as it rebrands, reimagines and reinvents itself to remain one of the area’s leading community banks.
First Things First: About James D. Nesci
Mr. Nesci brings more than 25 years of executive-level financial expertise to his new position with Boiling Springs Savings Bank. He will draw upon his considerable experience and proven leadership abilities to help increase revenue, expand product offerings, and implement a strategic vision for future growth.
Jim Nesci has decades of financial expertise and a proven track record. Prior to joining Boiling Springs Savings Bank, he was Head of National Sales for TD Bank’s $20 billion U.S. wealth management business. At TD, Nesci’s broad spectrum of contributions included positive impacts on national sales strategy, marketing, private client lending, mass affluent products, institutional services, personnel development and data & analytics.
Before joining TD Bank, Nesci served as Executive Vice President and Chief Wealth Management Officer of Provident Bank where he significantly increased annual top line revenue growth by organic and acquisitive means. Additionally, he was President of Beacon Trust, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Provident Bank. Prior to this, Jim Nesci was Chief Operating Officer with Wilmington Trust Company, National Wealth Management. Nesci earned two separate MBAs from Columbia Business School and the London Business School, respectively, as well as a BBA in Finance from Hofstra University in New York.
What attracted you to Boiling Springs Savings Bank?
I wanted to get back to an environment where I could have a positive and immediate impact on customers and employees. Moving to Boiling Springs Savings Bank allowed me to achieve that goal.
Given the bank’s $1.7 billion asset size and approximately 200-person staff count, we have the ability to make positive enhancements for customers rapidly. We have less infrastructure to thwart on a daily basis as compared to our national competitors. This allows us to invest our time in ways that are not feasible at larger institutions.
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
It starts with aligning our service offering with our customer’s needs—ensuring that our deposit and lending products remain attractive and competitive in our markets. Our goal is to eliminate any friction points in how our customers do business with us. We expect to greatly improve our customer experience through digital channel investments.
Finally, we want to reinvent what it means to be a community bank. The bank began a rebranding exercise in June of 2018. We expect to introduce our customers to a reimagined Boiling Springs Savings Bank in 2019.
How do you define success and what drives you to succeed?
Customer engagement! Do customers think of Boiling Springs Savings Bank first for their banking services?
Employee commitment! Do employees take pride in the products they deliver every day?
I believe if we can answer both of those questions with a solid “Yes”, we are succeeding.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given, or would give, in business?
Create and promote a transparent environment for customers and employees to interact.
Transparency assists with helping to understand motivation, expectations and reduces stress. Perhaps, most importantly, it helps to improve processes and ultimately customer experience.
What leadership/management advice would you give to a leader looking to motivate staff?
Align interests. Whatever direction you are trying to lead your team, be sure to understand why they care. Find ways to align your objectives with your team’s goals.
What’s next for your company?
A lot of exciting work. In the financial services sector, community banks will be facing any number of ongoing challenges and we at Boiling Springs will ensure we are positioned to meet them successfully.
We will continue to make positive strides as we shift our culture to become more customer focused and performance based.
