Quick, what’s the largest bank that has its headquarters in Iowa? Give up?

It’s MidWestOne Bank, based in Iowa City, with over $5.5 billion of deposits in five states reported at the end of March. Chief Executive Officer Chip Reeves says MidWestOne is in a sweet spot of having the size to handle any business’s needs while maintaining a close-to-home feel for customers.

“It’s kind of a large-bank expertise, but community-bank delivery,” he said.

Reeves started work in November, succeeding Charlie Funk, who led MidWestOne for over 20 years. But Reeves is only now beginning a more complete Iowa experience: His family closed on a home in Coralville, and he’s been joined in Iowa by his wife and youngest son, after they finished his eighth grade year in Tampa, Florida. Reeves had led Beach Bank there before taking the MidWestOne job.

We recently caught up with Reeves. 

This Q&A has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

What do you think of Iowa City so far?

I love it. The whole corridor here between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids is a wonderful place to live and do business. The vibrancy, energy, pulse, feel that 25,000 students give is always palpable, right? So it’s terrific.

You’ve been in Iowa for almost eight months now. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned?

Iowans have an incredible pride in their state. … The business community truly believes in doing business with one another.

What are your short-term priorities for MidWestOne?

Charlie Funk led the organization for 22 years and created an outstanding organization and culture. Frankly, [it’s] to continue being the bank of choice for our team members and for our customers and to continue the culture and the customer service that’s been the legacy and history of MidWestOne.

What are your long-term priorities?

Long-term priorities are to expand and, I’d probably say, up-tier our commercial banking presence throughout our five-state region to reflect our asset size. Not many individuals know that we’re actually the largest headquartered bank in the state of Iowa. And that is something that we’re trying to spend more time letting companies and individuals know in Iowa, and that we have the large-scale resources and expertise needed to take care of every business in the state of Iowa.

In terms of work, and your work-life balance, what does a typical day look like for you right now?

We’re publicly traded, so what I’d say is a typical day I try to spend – maybe not in one day but over a period of a week – the majority of my time ends up being spent with our team members, and then our customers, but then also I spend probably 15% to 20% of my time with investors or analysts in a publicly traded arena. Being new, you ultimately spend a lot of time with all of our constituencies, and internally, we call them Chats with Chip. We have done multitudes of department meetings as well as town halls, as we continue to introduce myself to the organization. Also, we just rolled out our next three-year strategic plan, and so we did nine different regional town hall meetings there. A typical day will be a good block of time with our team members, a good block of time on strategic planning, and then another block of time with customers, and then one more, essentially, in the investment community.

Do you prefer to go by Chip?

No one knows who Charles is.

The industry went through some scary times not long after you got here, with Silicon Valley and Signature banks. Has your bank taken steps to help reassure customers? What does that look like?

Yeah, absolutely. I think every bank in the Midwest and across the country took these steps. But ultimately, we spent a long time with our team members, so they had enough information for our customer base around the strength and stability of MidWestOne, specifically, but then also, frankly, the banking system in the state of Iowa. We have an outstanding community bank system here in the state, 240 headquartered institutions here in the state, and all of them are performing well. And all performed well even during this period of time. At this juncture, those safety and soundness concerns have abated. It’s still a difficult operating environment, but the safety and soundness from Silicon and Signature has really, truly abated.

Digital tools have obviously become very important in consumer banking. Can you describe MidWestOne’s evolution on that front?

We continue to evolve. We’ve increased our technology spend that within the first 60 days that I was here, we … approved three additional major technology platform initiatives, where we’ll be spending an additional $3 million a year just from those three projects. And then we’re not even close to being finished. We’re looking at two additional platform enhancements. And this is all for ease of the customer, both internal and external. And frankly, I think … ultimately, you’re going to be very good in the digital space or you’re not going to be here as an institution. And all of that is just one more tool or way to be a relationship-driven bank. But our customers are absolutely demanding that you have the digital presence.

What was attractive to you about this job to leave Beach Bank?

I first met Charlie Funk only about two and a half, three years ago. And, you know, first, we operate in really compelling markets, because we also operate in the Twin Cities, we operate in Denver, and then in both main corridors in Iowa. The market demographics were outstanding, the culture of the organization was outstanding, and then the scale is – in this environment in the banking industry, you do need scale to invest in, frankly, the technological change that’s occurring in our industry – and so we’re in a wonderful, sweet spot of, we have enough scale to invest, but we’re small enough that we still keep that community-bank feel, and I’m able to spend time with team members and customers, etc. So it’s kind of a large-bank expertise, but community-bank delivery.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I chase my kids. I’m an exercise fanatic, as well. I played basketball in college and so I still play a little bit of hoops. Try to beat my 14-year-old son in one-on-one; that is occurring less frequently as he continues to mature and grow. But overall, it’s exercise, reading, and then, frankly, anything that my kids are into, I’m into.

Do you have any favorite NCAA or NBA basketball teams that you follow?

I’m a Chicago diehard. So, across the spectrum, Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks … definitely Cubs, not White Sox.

Is there anything about banking or what you do that I didn’t ask you that I should have that you think would be important for Business Record readers to know?

Even in this advanced technological age that we’re in and will continue to be here, it’s truly one-on-one relationships with banking and customer service that continues to set this organization and I think many others apart.

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At a glance

Age: 55

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Education: Bachelor of Science in marketing from Miami University of Ohio, 1990.

Family: Married to Michelle for 28 years; she is from suburban Chicago, and they met in college. Four children, ages 27, 24, 23, 14.

Lives: Relocating from Tampa, Florida, and now residing in Coralville.

Activities/Hobbies: Time with kids, exercise, reading, basketball – he was a collegiate basketball player at Miami of Ohio.

Contact: creeves@midwestone.com