Thursday, December 11, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- It turns out that Frank Hierro wasn’t ready to retire.
Hierro, who just joined the Home Savings and Loan Co. as president of its Mahoning Valley Region, retired Nov. 14 as president of the Mahoning Valley region of Huntington Bank. He and Gary M. Small, president and CEO of Home Savings and its holding company, United Community Financial Corp., met Wednesday with The Business Journal.
Home Savings finds itself in a strong position to expand its commercial lending activity and re-engage in markets it had left, Small said, now that it’s worked out the problems that surfaced in August 2008.
With Hierro’s more than three decades in commercial banking, he is very familiar the businesses in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties and their needs, Small said. The bank is looking to add more commercial lenders to its team.
“Frank is going to be involved,” Small said, “and with his know-how, and with us bringing in new capabilities, we’ll be a net taker of business.”
From a lending portfolio of which roughly two-thirds consists of residential mortgages and consumer loans, Small’s goal is to have that portfolio balanced equally between consumer lending and commercial lending. “We look to grow [the commercial lending portfolio] 250% over the next three years,” he said.
Forty percent of the loans Home Savings holds were made to businesses and consumers in the Mahoning Valley. “We’re a very robust mortgage lender in the Valley,” Small said.
Besides overseeing the commercial portfolio in the Mahoning Valley, which involves coaching the business lenders, Hierro is in charge of municipal lending and working with high net worth individuals.
“We look like a destination spot,” Small said, for talented bankers looking to fulfill their potential. “In our community banking model, we bring the whole team to bear,” he elaborated. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and a lot of opportunity for success.”
“And our customers embrace that,” Hierro added.
Both consumers and businesses identify with Home Savings being headquartered in Youngstown, which Hierro said, “allows us to be closer to our customers.”
The bankers first met each other nine years ago at the former Sky Bank when Hierro was president of its Youngstown region and Small was executive vice president and president of its regional banking group. He was responsible for the nine regions that extended from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, across northern Ohio and into Indiana, ending in Indianapolis.
“I thought the way Frank positioned himself and the bank was the way we should be in all our markets,” Small related. “I would often hold him up as a standard.” They worked together a little more than two years.
After Huntington acquired Sky, Small left for S&T Bank, Indiana, Pa., where he became executive vice president and chief banking officer before taking the reins of UCFC and Home Savings last March.
Upon returning to Youngstown, “Frank was one of the first calls I made when I came back, to have a face-to-face discussion,” Small recalled.
As Hierro realized he wasn’t ready to retire, that he still had goals he wanted to achieve, he saw Home Savings as the vehicle to reach them. His office on the fourth floor of the Home Savings Building is where he expects to write the final chapter in his banking career.
He’ll write that chapter both as a banker and serving on the boards of economic development organizations such as Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. and the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, Hierro said.
What Home Savings has offered him, he said, “is a compelling opportunity and a way to continue giving back to the community, … to [realize] the vision of the future I see.”
The veteran banker also believes in giving of his time and involvement in social services agencies, including United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and Beatitude House. He’s also involved with the local chapters of the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association.
He chaired the association’s Heart Walk at Youngstown State University last Sept. 20 and participated by walking around the track in the Watts Center along with other volunteers.
Hierro will join the Home Savings Foundation Board of Directors, Small announced. The foundation acts as the charitable arm of the bank.
Helping Hierro achieve his vision is an improving economy. “It’s an opportunity for us to help customers benefit from that,” he said, as interest rates begin to rise after five years of historic lows.
“We’ll help them with term financing,” he said, and provide the working capital they’ll need.”
He’s “disappointed” that it’s taking Congress so long to act on renewing accelerated depreciation, to extend Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code. While it hasn’t yet, Congress has done so late every year this decade with an eye to encouraging small businesses to buy major machinery and equipment.
Section 179 allows a company to take accelerated or bonus depreciation of up to $500,000, to write off qualified purchases – equipment, machinery, certain vehicle and software -- in one year.
“It’s hard for them [small-business owners] to make decisions,” Hierro pointed out. “I’ve been talking to CPAs. Their clients tell them they expect the extension [to be passed]. They still have time to make capital investment” but Dec. 31 is fast approaching.
Pictured: Frank Hierro and Gary Small.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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