Season 3, Episode 6: Ilaria Rawlins
Building Culture and Community in Banking with Ilaria Rawlins
In this insightful episode of Jack Rants with Modern Bankers, host Jack Hubbard sits down with Ilaria Rawlins, CEO of Fortuna Bank in Columbus, Ohio, to explore her inspiring journey from “accidental banker” to accomplished financial leader. Ilaria shares how her early experiences in banking shaped her leadership philosophy, the lessons learned in navigating challenges, and the importance of fostering innovation while maintaining the personal touch that defines community banking.
Together, Jack and Ilaria dive into topics such as leadership development, building a values-driven culture, empowering teams, and how community banks can stay competitive in an evolving financial landscape. This episode offers practical wisdom and authentic stories that both seasoned bankers and emerging leaders will find invaluable.
View Transcript
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Jack Hubbard: I rarely get a chance to talk about banking and entrepreneurialism in the same breath, but I get to do that today with my guest, Ellaria Rollins, and Ellaria is the CEO of Fortuna Bank in Columbus, Ohio. Great to have you with us today, Ellaria.
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ilaria rawlins: Thank you so much, Jack. I'm thrilled to be here, and I'm thrilled to be able to talk about, kind of, our journey.
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Jack Hubbard: Well, it is an interesting journey, and I want to start
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Jack Hubbard: a little while ago with your journey. So you graduate from college, and then you, start with Ohio Savings Bank as an AVP.
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Jack Hubbard: It's a great way to start at the lower levels and move your way up. I'm an accidental banker. I got into banking quite by accident. I'm curious about your journey. Did you want to be a banker? Are you an accidental banker? Just give us a little, little history lesson on Ellaria Rollins.
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ilaria rawlins: Thanks. I, you know, the more people I run into in banking, I hear more and more they're an accidental banker. I, too, am an accidental banker. It was, as a result of graduating from Denison and being part of their on-campus interviewing, my very first job out of college was in banking.
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ilaria rawlins: I really wanted to be a news anchor. In fact, that's what I left, went to college to go with kind of the intent to do. I wanted to be the next Jane Pauley.
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ilaria rawlins: But junior year at Denison, I took some economics classes, really became intrigued with kind of just how the economy runs and how money moves, and landed in banking, but over time, really fell in love with
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ilaria rawlins: The opportunities that banking provides.
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Jack Hubbard: Well, and you grow your career, and you go to First Financial.
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Jack Hubbard: Which is a really fine organization, continues to grow. You're the retail bank president. And then in 2019, maybe earlier, you say, you know what, I think I'm gonna
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Jack Hubbard: just go off on my own and kind of start something new. What was the catalyst for that? Talk about that time in your life.
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ilaria rawlins: Sure, and I think I'll go a little bit before First Financial, because I think this really gives some insight into at least where my mindset was. But I had the opportunity to be a part of a de novo bank.
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ilaria rawlins: Called First Bexley Bank here in Columbus, Ohio. We were around from 2006 till 2014.
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ilaria rawlins: I was not part of the organizing group. However, I was there on day one when we opened our doors, and had the opportunity to be able to see what it takes to grow a bank from the ground up.
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ilaria rawlins: And that was fascinating. And what I really loved about my time at First Bexley Bank was that we…
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ilaria rawlins: had the opportunity. We were a true community bank. We had the opportunity to really spend time with our clients.
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ilaria rawlins: establish deep relationships. We were the most loved bank, and I might be biased, but we were the most loved bank in the community, and it was… it was just… you really felt like you were serving a good purpose by being there.
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ilaria rawlins: And, we were acquired in 2014 by First Financial.
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ilaria rawlins: I had the opportunity to stay on with First Financial, and to your point, led the retail team for the last couple of years while I was there.
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ilaria rawlins: but my… and I loved it, and it was probably the hardest job I've ever had. It was leading a team of 700 associates across a four-state footprint with 140, branches. Also, during time, and I'm sure you're familiar with, there's, you know, I think the branch network and banking in general is going through disruption, and so trying to… and COVID, so trying to figure out what that ultimately looks like.
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ilaria rawlins: But my heart was always with community banking and the ability to connect with people, and so it would not… it was not unlike me to talk to some of the original organizers of the previous de novo and say, let's do it again. Like, let's do it again. And, I got a call late 2021 from one of my former clients who had recently sold her business.
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ilaria rawlins: And she said that she was thinking of starting a bank and would like me to consider it and be CEO, and we started talking about it, but I jumped in with both feet and thought, this is gonna be a lot of fun.
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Jack Hubbard: Well, I'm sure it is a lot of fun, and as we talked before we started recording, it's rare in life that you get a chance to start a business and see it grow and things like that.
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Jack Hubbard: But banking is so different than many other kinds of businesses, because while we're deregulated, we're still a very regulated industry, and capital is king and queen. So, talk about that time when you were raising capital. What were some of the challenges you found in getting the money to get this bank started?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, so we were required by regulators, and part of our business plan was that we would raise somewhere between $20 and $25 million. We knew we had to raise $20 million.
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ilaria rawlins: Our story is a little unique in that when the bank was, when the kind of bank was organized and formed, we knew we wanted to be mission-driven. We wanted to be a great community bank, we would, like, want to be a great community bank for everybody.
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ilaria rawlins: But we would like to be really intentional in female entrepreneurs and female consumers, knowing that there's opportunity in that space
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ilaria rawlins: both from growth in those… those specific niches, but also financial education, networking, mentorship, access to capital. There's a lot that we can do there, to really lift that… that…
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ilaria rawlins: group up.
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ilaria rawlins: So we wanted to be women-owned. We wanted more than 50% of our shareholders to be women-owned.
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ilaria rawlins: I think we went into the capital raise a little cocky. We had kind of like a… what I'll refer to as maybe, like, a brother startup bank that had launched 3 years ahead of us here in Columbus, and they needed to raise $25 million. They raised $42 million in 4 months.
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ilaria rawlins: So, I think we thought it would be a lot easier than it was. It took us a year to raise $20 million.
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ilaria rawlins: We were unique in our approach, not only wanting to be women-owned and having the majority of our shareholders female, we also dropped the entry point to become a shareholder. A couple of reasons.
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ilaria rawlins: Typically, you'll see the entry point about $50,000 to $100,000 to be a shareholder in a startup bank. We dropped it to 10.
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ilaria rawlins: We wanted more shareholders that would then be day one brand ambassadors and clients to help us with organic growth. So we have 350 shareholders today.
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ilaria rawlins: We also wanted, knowing that women often don't see private equity investment opportunities, we didn't want the entry point to feel intimidating. We needed to be something that could feel manageable, affordable.
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ilaria rawlins: and also something that they could dip their toe in to start experiencing, how else can I generate wealth outside of my traditional 401K plan? What are some other investment options? And so that was a really successful
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ilaria rawlins: a successful tactic on our part. However, it just took longer. I mean, if you're talking now $10,000 investments and needing to raise $20 million, that's a lot of $10,000 investments.
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ilaria rawlins: I'd say about 50% of our shareholders are at that level. What I love about it is that it's everybody. It's your neighbor, it's our community members, it's your gym partner, it's some of the, you know, big names here in Columbus as well, but it's a wonderful mix.
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ilaria rawlins: With a lot of diverse experiences within our shareholder base that we're actively,
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ilaria rawlins: You know, tapping into for ideation, thoughts, mentorship opportunities.
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Jack Hubbard: Well, you mentioned Columbus. I'll tell you a quick story. My very first…
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Jack Hubbard: training session on my own, in 1987 was at Bank, Ohio, and I think it was at 150 Broad Street, that's a long-term memory thing, but Columbus, Ohio is such an amazing city.
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Jack Hubbard: What was it about… I mean, you could have opened a bank anywhere. Certainly, you're from Ohio, and you know Ohio and things like that, but you could have gone to any city in Ohio and opened this thing. What was it about Columbus, Ohio, that said to you, this is where we need to put this bank?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah.
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ilaria rawlins: To your point, Columbus is a wonderful city. It has some tremendous growth.
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ilaria rawlins: projections taking place now, so we knew whether it was through the Intel deal, now Andrew coming to Columbus. It's also relatively sheltered from, economic kind of volatility. We're the state capital. We have large universities here that support.
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ilaria rawlins: That support the area, and then what I love most about Columbus is it's very, very…
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ilaria rawlins: The people who live here are so proud to be here, and are so supportive of homegrown organizations and businesses.
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ilaria rawlins: I remember talking to a reporter now, probably two and a half, three years ago, who was from New York City, and he's like, I don't care about relationships with my bank. I mean, he didn't say it that bluntly, but that was generally the gist, and I said, and that's exactly why we wouldn't do this in New York City. But in Columbus, it works. People like those connections. People like to have those relationships. It means something to them, and so we felt like we could really capitalize on
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ilaria rawlins: on, Really, the, the…
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ilaria rawlins: I don't know, the niceness isn't the right word, but just a kind of the… the… the desire to have relationships here on Columbus.
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ilaria rawlins: We also are very, very familiar with the area, and fun fact, we are tied with LA. Columbus is tied with LA for startup banks since 2019. So, it's a very banking-friendly community.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, it really is. So, there are, by your count and mine, about 15 women-owned banks.
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Jack Hubbard: And interestingly enough, Agility Bank, which was started by Lawrence Sparks, our good friend, yours and mine, there's a bank up in Pennsylvania called Impresia Bank.
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Jack Hubbard: that is connected to CNB Bank, up in Pennsylvania that I'm very familiar with. There aren't a lot of women-owned banks. Talk about why. Now, let's be clear. If a male
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Jack Hubbard: Business owner comes to your bank and wants to open an account, you're certainly going to take his money.
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ilaria rawlins: Come on in, yes. But why… why women? What was the… what was the impetus for that?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, great question. So it was… it really was… was born from a couple of things. To your point, the novelty and the… and… and the fact that there were less than 15 women-owned banks out of 4,800 in the country, felt like really a…
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ilaria rawlins: Not scary… a scary number, but, we'll cut that part out. Let's cut that part out.
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ilaria rawlins: So, let me… I'll… can I start over? Thank you. Okay.
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ilaria rawlins: Could you do me one more favor? Can you tee me up one more time? Sure, sure.
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Jack Hubbard: So, Fortuna is one of less than 15 women-owned banks in the country. A man comes to the, to the bank, wants to open an account, you'll take his money.
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ilaria rawlins: Absolutely.
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Jack Hubbard: The focus of the bank, from an investor perspective, director perspective that we're going to talk about, and your whole branding idea, the focus of your bank is women.
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Jack Hubbard: Why? What's the magic of going in this direction of saying, I want to focus on women business owners?
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ilaria rawlins: Thank you. Great question. We, when Lisa Berger, the really the original founder, she's our chairwoman here at the bank, came to me with the idea of starting a bank, she had done some research. She had found that out of the 4,800 banks in the country, less than 15 were women-owned.
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ilaria rawlins: Two of which, ahead of us, that we know of, had been intentionally created to be women-owned. One, Agility, that you mentioned, and two, First Women's Bank in Chicago, that launched… I think they both launched in 2021. So we knew that we would have something that was really a differentiator, really here, especially in the Columbus community. The more that we dug, the more intriguing it became.
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ilaria rawlins: We learned women-owned businesses are growing at 2 times the national average. Tons of opportunity there. Female entrepreneurs are denied three times more often than their male counterparts for a commercial loan.
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ilaria rawlins: And it's not because of intentional discrimination. Banks aren't allowed to discriminate. However, what we believe is that the network… their networks are just not set up to be able to set themselves up for success. When you think about
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ilaria rawlins: the commercial lend… commercial lenders out there, 75% are generally male. If you're a guy starting a business, it is very likely you have a buddy in your network, you can text or call.
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ilaria rawlins: hey, I'm thinking of doing this, what does my loan package need to look like? Can you help me, identify what obstacles I may run into? And they hold their hand. They have a vested interest in their success.
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ilaria rawlins: Very generalized statement, but what we envision the opposite to look like if a female is trying to start a business.
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ilaria rawlins: Oftentimes, she's using her own personal funds, which now sets her up for a disadvantage, to be bank approved. We also see that they may not have that person in their network, so instead, they're walking into a banking center, they don't know the person across the desk from them.
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ilaria rawlins: They may get a checklist of what they need to put together, but there's no one really holding their hand. And we felt, knowing that we're a community bank, that we have more time and capacity to be able to spend with these people, that's really an area that intrigued us.
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ilaria rawlins: Secondly,
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ilaria rawlins: women stand to inherit the majority of the great wealth transfer taking place from baby boomers to the next generation, yet we're not great at long-term financial investments. Oftentimes, in a traditional household, they're not the ones making the retirement decisions.
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ilaria rawlins: We do day-to-day money management, we pay the bills, we handle the checking account, but as far as retirement, and planning for retirement, generating wealth, that's not our area of expertise, and we thought that that would be an opportunity to capitalize on.
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ilaria rawlins: So at the end of the day, what we really wanted to bring with Fortuna was, through our philanthropic arm, was four things. Access to capital.
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ilaria rawlins: networking.
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ilaria rawlins: Mentorship and tapping into our existing shareholder base of 350 shareholders who have areas of expertise and pairing people up, and financial education.
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ilaria rawlins: And we thought it really made for a compelling story. It's a… to your point, it's a differentiator, in the market. But it's also… there's also a need. And so we say today we want to be a great bank for everyone, and to your point, everyone is welcome in, and everyone will get their hand held. Our niche is really small business.
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ilaria rawlins: And really guiding people through that. We know that just like us, they're wearing lots of hats, so we'd like to be able to do it, but when we talk about providing financial education and some of those other opportunities, those will be female-focused.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, and I want to talk about the female focus, not just on the customer level, but on an employee level.
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Jack Hubbard: So, on your website, there are… your employees are listed, and there's a couple of men, mostly women. I'm curious, as you got into this, and as you were getting started to open the bank.
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Jack Hubbard: How did you go about recruiting? What kind of women were you looking for as you tried to hire people to serve your customers?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah.
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ilaria rawlins: I've been fortunate that I've been in the industry long enough and have had the opportunity to work with just some phenomenal people, over the past, so I'm really lucky to say that the majority of the people on this team are people that I've known and that I was able to bring over through existing relationships.
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ilaria rawlins: But ultimately, what I… really what I looked for, and what was… Most important to me was…
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ilaria rawlins: kindness.
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ilaria rawlins: passion.
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ilaria rawlins: Knowing that we are going to be deep in the weeds in spaces that we had not been deep in the weeds in, and… and…
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ilaria rawlins: okay with that sense of uncertainty. There are times as a de novo bank, and we don't have the call center be… a call center behind us, or a help desk where we can call and find answers.
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ilaria rawlins: Whether it's on our core system, or on how does Zelle work, or any of those, any of those spaces, and so we'll stand there looking at each other saying, I don't know what the answer is, and… but that's not an acceptable answer. So it's a lot of hunting and pecking, and so you have to have people that have
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ilaria rawlins: The wherewithal to know that, you know, it's…
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ilaria rawlins: We're not gonna have all the answers, but it's gonna be okay, and we'll figure it out.
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ilaria rawlins: And so those were really some of the key pieces. Also aligning with kind of that, that, understanding that we're here, just wanted to build a strong, strong network and community, so people that have a passion about building the client relationships and that meaning something to them. I think as bankers, we have a really unique opportunity to be present in very big moments of people's lives.
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ilaria rawlins: And that is something. I mean, that means something. And so, I wanted people on this team to have that… to… to recognize how important that is. And the team here is just phenomenal. It's… it's a… it's a we, it's not…
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ilaria rawlins: Us and they, it's… it's everyone working together and really rowing hard in the same direction.
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Jack Hubbard: The other fun thing is that, well, I don't know, that's the first time it's happened here, but you obviously hire quality, experienced people who have experienced this in other organizations, so it's not the first time it's ever happened to them, it's just the first time it's ever happened here. Sure.
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ilaria rawlins: Absolutely.
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Jack Hubbard: Your website's interesting. It talks about environment. It talks about making people feel welcome when they come into your branch.
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Jack Hubbard: in your headquarters. Talk about what that means. If I'm a customer and I'm wanting to do some business with your bank, what does feel welcome mean? How is it different than other banks?
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ilaria rawlins: I think to start, banks are going through, really, a revolution of what's happening with the customer. They're not coming into the banking center as often, so what do we do with the… but the brick and mortar's still important. People want to know that they have a place that they can go if something's an emergency.
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ilaria rawlins: And so we really took that to heart when we were thinking about how did we want to design our office, and what…
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ilaria rawlins: What?
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ilaria rawlins: functionality does it need to have, but what does it need to feel like? At the end of the day, we want people to feel good, and I think when…
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ilaria rawlins: I think you can, when you walk into a traditional bank, you might see a teller line, there's a lot of separation,
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ilaria rawlins: You don't necessarily know where to go outside maybe the teller line and ask the question, and so we instead wanted to create a really open environment,
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ilaria rawlins: and warm, where when you walk in, we have someone there who will greet you immediately and help kind of direct the traffic. We also recognize that, as I mentioned before, branch traffic and people walking in isn't taking place. So how can we make our space really useful? We have a beautiful conference room that we allow people in the community, clients, shareholders, to reserve for their meetings if they'd like to.
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ilaria rawlins: For us, that's… that's a double advantage. One, we have people now in the office that may not have necessarily
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ilaria rawlins: come to visit the bank for any other reason, so we're getting traffic and brand awareness, and it also fills up our space. We have a great open space where we host networking events, so when we talk about the financial education, or networking opportunities, or mentorships, or panel discussions.
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ilaria rawlins: we utilize the space in that, in that manner. We have a coffee bar and a candy bar, so it's, it's just different. I think, you know, I think the way that… that branches
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ilaria rawlins: used to be built is not the way that we'll see branches being built in the future, and I think we're just kind of on the forefront of some of that change. We don't have a traditional teller line. We have private offices.
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ilaria rawlins: Where we bring clients to have some of those consultations and discussions, or we can sit in the lobby, and then we also invite our community. They'd like to plug in and work from our office, they're welcome to do that as well.
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Jack Hubbard: Wow.
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Jack Hubbard: I want to talk about the financial education, because you've done some interesting things, and I'm sure you've got other things planned. But I want to also talk about young women
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Jack Hubbard: Which are no different than young men in business in terms of wanting to come to the branch and wanting to do their banking differently, digitally, things like that.
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Jack Hubbard: What are you doing from a business development perspective to go out and find these women, go out and call on them, versus having them come to the branch, which they just aren't doing anymore?
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ilaria rawlins: No, right. It's… I mean, it's so… it's a lot of connecting. We've been blessed with really some phenomenal media coverage here in Columbus. The press has been very nice to us, so we've been able to get our brand out there, but it's built on relationships. We, you know, we have an active relationship with Denison University here that is just outside of Columbus, Ohio. They've been a phenomenal partner.
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ilaria rawlins: In…
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ilaria rawlins: providing us with access to students that… where we can pick their brains. We can understand how are they banking? What do they want to see? We had interns here from… from there. We're… we have high schoolers and focus groups that we're working with to talk more about
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ilaria rawlins: what does a bank mean to them? But also.
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ilaria rawlins: trying to inform them, and I just said this in a discussion earlier this week, is we don't know we need a banker until we actually need a banker. And so sometimes, just being so reactive and being reliant on digital and convenience.
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ilaria rawlins: that's great, until you run into a problem, and then you actually need someone to talk to. So, we're really trying to do a lot of education about,
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ilaria rawlins: You know, just making sure the importance of
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ilaria rawlins: having a banker that you can text or call if something comes up. We're part of many organizations here in Columbus, again, working to get our brand out, but it's a lot of one-on-one coffees, lunches, meetings with people in Columbus, utilizing our shareholder base for additional connections beyond theirs.
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ilaria rawlins: So a lot of organic growth.
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ilaria rawlins: And… and work.
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Jack Hubbard: and work. And I want to talk about that, because one of the things that Lauren Sparks and I talked about was
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Jack Hubbard: geez, as a CEO, I didn't know how many hats I wore. I didn't… I don't think I could fit another hat on my head, but you have to. But I want to go back to the… I want to go back to the, education part. You recently did a program with a CPA, Profit, Taxes and Strategy.
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Jack Hubbard: talk about… talk about that, and… and you're not doing a lot of them, but I'm sure there's a lot in the planning process. How…
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Jack Hubbard: What was that like? Talk about the number of women that came, what you did, and some of the things you might want to plan in the future for those education events.
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, we've been, we've been slowly building out that financial education kind of platform, and being really intentional in trying to identify what do…
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ilaria rawlins: what do people want to hear? What do they want to learn more about? What does interest them? What do they need to know for their own business? And so, the CPA panel was a great one. We just held that last week as well.
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ilaria rawlins: we had about 15 women in the room, a combination of shareholders and current clients, and it was a great, just engaged discussion with 3 members on the panel, all who have a variety of experiences within that kind of CPA field, from,
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ilaria rawlins: from a support perspective, and those are the type of, I think, financial education sessions, or just even sessions, like gathering sessions, that we…
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ilaria rawlins: know are so important, not only from an education perspective, but also networking. It gets people in the room to start talking to each other so that these female entrepreneurs can build their network and find other people that maybe are in the same boat, or that they can bounce ideas off of. And so that's ultimately really the intent, as a startup
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ilaria rawlins: this year has felt a little bit reactionary in building out some of those financial programs. But we're really now starting to kind of buckle down. We have some more information
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ilaria rawlins: Knowing what people are looking to learn and do, and what's bringing them in, that 2026 will start to formalize what that looks like.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, and from a women-owned and a male-owned business, it doesn't matter. You look at the economy, you look at tariffs, taxes, what's going on environmentally.
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Jack Hubbard: this is a big need, and I think that's the essence of a community bank, is to be able to bring buyers and sellers together, and help them in a very neutral way, not selling the bank, you're just trying to help. And I think…
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Jack Hubbard: You know, I've been told women are better networkers than men, and they just need a chance. They just need an opportunity. Speaking of opportunities, every day's an opportunity for you. You come in, you've got, in your office, you probably have a lot of hats. Well, I'm the CEO now, no, I'm the lender now, no, I'm in operations now.
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Jack Hubbard: How do you find time to do all of this? What's a day in the life of Ellaria Rollins like these days?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah. It's, I mean, it's… it's crazy. I mean, there are days where I don't have, what I would call desk time, where I can actually check emails, and so it's… to your point, it's growth…
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ilaria rawlins: Kind of growth mindset, so every day is making sure that we have our activities planned, that we're talking to people, we're continuing to stay connected, and that we're driving in deposits and loans and building out some of those, financial education and relationships, kind of that… those networking opportunities.
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ilaria rawlins: I couldn't do it without a phenomenal team, and that's… that's really why I'm able to lay my head down at night, is that I know what my areas of, weakness are, and I've built a team intentionally to be able to support those areas.
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ilaria rawlins: So that together, we can go even further. But it's…
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ilaria rawlins: I come in, it's, you know, it's…
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ilaria rawlins: What are total assets today? That's a big number for us every day as we're in this de novo stage. You know, what appointments do we have?
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ilaria rawlins: what operational fires are taking place, if any? What successes have we had? We have a standing team meeting every day, because it's 11 of us, but we all jump on for 15 minutes and do kind of quick hits of what's going on. That's been a great way to be able to stay
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ilaria rawlins: connected and,
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ilaria rawlins: But it's a lot of everything. I think… I don't know that it's unlike any other small business owner that's compliance, regulatory governance, you know, board management.
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ilaria rawlins: customer experience, growth, all of those pieces. Operations…
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Jack Hubbard: Every day.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, and you talked about the board, so your board makeup is 4 women, 2 men, and it's intimate, like your 11 associates that you work with every day, which is great.
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Jack Hubbard: Talk about their responsibilities. I know some of the board members are at the bank as employees, but you've got a couple of outside directors. Talk about the board and their responsibilities in growing this bank.
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, thanks. We, we were intentional in selecting our board for a variety of reasons. We knew we wanted diverse backgrounds.
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ilaria rawlins: to be able to support the bank from a kind of overarching view into what are we trying to do. So we have one board member who is the CISO at NYSource, and she is our IT expert, and she really supports us from a technology, knowing how important that is today, from a technology perspective, providing insights. We have a couple of CPAs, so they help from the financial governance side.
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ilaria rawlins: We have an entrepreneur in our board chair, and she was… she's…
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ilaria rawlins: She's our pusher. I mean, everything needs to happen tomorrow, and that's fantastic. One of our board members was the original organizer of First Bexley Bank, the first… the de novo that I worked for in the early 2000s, so he has a lot of, you know, de novo experience, and saw what it took to grow a bank from the ground up, and…
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ilaria rawlins: And so that's been great.
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ilaria rawlins: We have a lady who is very tied to community organizations in Columbus.
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ilaria rawlins: being the most recent past president of the YWCA here in Columbus, knowing that with our missions side, that community organizations are really, important for us to be able to kind of build those relationships with those community organizations and with Columbus in general, and so that was really important.
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ilaria rawlins: And so I talk about their areas of expertise and what they could assist us with, but at the end of the day, it's also growth, and so it's…
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ilaria rawlins: help… have… relying on them to help bring their friends and family to the bank, and talking about the bank, and being our biggest cheerleaders and brand ambassadors. So they keep us in the guardrails, but they also, help us grow.
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ilaria rawlins: And that's… that's a big expectation.
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Jack Hubbard: No doubt about it. And, I remember working for a small community bank
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Jack Hubbard: back in the 1980s, and you said something that really struck with me. You said, looking at the next asset level and the next asset level, we would look at the books at the end of every day and celebrate if we had another million dollars in… Yes!
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ilaria rawlins: We just did that this morning!
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Jack Hubbard: A million dollars.
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Jack Hubbard: Yes. That's so fun to do.
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ilaria rawlins: Yes.
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Jack Hubbard: Just a couple more questions, and I can't leave this conversation without talking about AI. You know, in banking, AI is still a challenge, and some community banks have just chosen to ignore it, I think, at their own peril.
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Jack Hubbard: You, as a brand new bank, as a relatively new bank, AI comes at you from two perspectives. The customers using AI, and your bankers using AI. Just talk about that from both perspectives. How are you seeing AI being used?
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Jack Hubbard: From your customer perspective, and your banker's perspective.
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, and, you know, I don't know that I have insight from the customer's perspective. And I will say, and so this may be a disappointing answer, for right now, we are… I'd like to get through my first safety and soundness exam with the regulators before I delve into AI, because I might scare them. So there is some hesitancy from a, how do we… recognizing
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ilaria rawlins: that it's such an important tool from a connectivity standpoint, from an efficiency standpoint, but I'd like to personally learn more about how can we play in that space and still keep regulators happy while we're in our de novo phase.
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ilaria rawlins: Because until that de novo phase is over, I'm seeing them every 6 months.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah.
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Jack Hubbard: Just a couple of more questions.
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Jack Hubbard: So there are some young women watching this program.
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Jack Hubbard: who may either want to be bankers or would become accidental bankers. And they look to people like you, who have risen throughout your career and become an executive. What do you say to women about
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Jack Hubbard: When they consider starting in a bank, or as having a banking career, where could their career take them these days?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, I think… I think they have to align with their passion first and foremost, and identify what are they looking to get out of a career. But I think… I think today.
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ilaria rawlins: you know, there's just as much opportunity for women to work up the ladder that we see, kind of, male counterparts doing. So.
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ilaria rawlins: One thing I tell my daughters, and even coach, you know, younger employees or interns on, is.
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ilaria rawlins: Almost every single promotion I've gotten was because I asked for it.
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ilaria rawlins: So, I'm a big advocate of using your voice, and making sure that
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ilaria rawlins: The person that you report to knows what your intent is, what you would like to do, and ask for guidance on how to get there. But you have to be your own best advocate first.
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ilaria rawlins: And then I think you just… there's so much opportunity these days with different… whether it's through mentor… a lot of companies now have mentorship programs, have, you know, development programs, and I'd say you have to jump all in in some of those, opportunities that are provided to you, and…
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ilaria rawlins: And then you think about… I was just talking to someone, you think about, do I go to a big bank to learn X, or do I go start at a small bank? And I would recommend both experiences. I think the large banks are phenomenal from, efficiency, from being really intentional, maybe in one space.
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ilaria rawlins: And kind of perfecting that space. But the beauty of a community bank is you'll wear 75 hats, and you'll see probably more than you ever even thought existed in what it takes to run a bank, and that just allows perspective.
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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, that's, that's great. Well, if we were gonna do this interview.
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Jack Hubbard: Three years from now, 2 years from now.
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Jack Hubbard: Realizing that you just gotta open the doors every day and serve the customers. Where do you see Fortuna Bank headed 2 or 3 years from now?
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ilaria rawlins: Yeah, I would love to be… so our business plan says $150 million in total assets, so that's kind of the, the neon light that keeps shining.
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ilaria rawlins: That would also mean that we have reached profitability, which generally, for a community bank, it takes about 6 to 8 quarters… de novo takes about 6 to 8 quarters to hit profitability. I'd love to see our kind of financial education, our philanthropic side of Fortuna Bank really be,
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ilaria rawlins: established, and I'd love to be really completely ingrained in the Columbus community, and recognized as a premier, bank for not just women, but everybody who would like to walk in the door.
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Jack Hubbard: You're off on a great start, to hit that goal. You know, there are…
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Jack Hubbard: 350 women who are bank CEOs. You are in a very elite category.
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Jack Hubbard: And the reasons are very clear based on this interview. You have a lot of expertise, you're intelligent, you're bright, you're customer-focused, and I'm sure that really reflects very well on all of your employees, and certainly the customers that come in.
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Jack Hubbard: I really appreciate this time today. Final thoughts from your perspective on starting a bank, growing a bank, growing a career, anything you want to add?
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ilaria rawlins: Well, thank you very, very much for the time, first, and I think for starting a bank, we need more banks. Community banks and de novos play such an important role in, kind of, Main Street of America.
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ilaria rawlins: So I'm… I'm open to help con… to talk to people if they're interested in doing it, but otherwise, it's… it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work.
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Jack Hubbard: It is, and speaking of, talking to people, if somebody did want to reach out, talk about your website, how can they get ahold of you?
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ilaria rawlins: Fantastic. Website is www.fortunabank.com. It does have our contact information. I think both my cell phone is on the website, as well as my email address, but my email address is irrawlins at fortunabank.com, and that's probably the best place to get me.
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Jack Hubbard: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for finding time for this. I know you're very, very busy starting a bank, growing a bank, and so I really appreciate your time, Ellaria Rollins. Thanks very much for being with us today.
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ilaria rawlins: Thanks, Jack, I appreciate it.
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Jack Hubbard: Okay.
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Jack Hubbard: Very good. Well done! Well done.
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ilaria rawlins: Thank you, thank you again for the opportunity. I say that, with my, with my whole heart. It's, you know, anytime we are able to get our name out there, it's helpful to us, so I really, really appreciate it.
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Jack Hubbard: No doubt, and what we'll do is we'll give you the full link to the full program. You can use it in any way you want. You know, I'm a… I started my banking career in 1973 at a community bank, and the bank had been established, but we were only $45 million.
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Jack Hubbard: And, I have a… and now I'm on the board of a… of Wintrust, which is… Oh, sure!
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Jack Hubbard: an affiliate of Wintrust. We're $3 billion, I think we're the smallest bank. But we started when I was… when I started on the board 15 years ago, we were less than a billion. So I'm… I'm a community banker at heart, and anytime I can interview somebody like you.
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Jack Hubbard: who has this passion for community banking, which is so vital, it's a real privilege, so I appreciate you being with me.
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ilaria rawlins: Thank you. I, I, again, I appreciate it as well.
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Jack Hubbard: Good. A program will be on, just so you know.
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Jack Hubbard: Let's see, when do I have you on? October 22nd.
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Jack Hubbard: So, you'll get… a couple of days before, you'll get something from a colleague of mine with all kinds of marketing stuff, you're welcome to use it in any way, and I'll get you the full, the full program so you can cut it up, and you can use it in your marketing if you want.
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ilaria rawlins: Fantastic, that's great, I appreciate it.
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Jack Hubbard: Thanks, Ellaria. All the best to you and your colleagues.
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ilaria rawlins: Have a fantastic weekend.
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Jack Hubbard: Thank you, you too. Bye now.
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ilaria rawlins: Take care.
