2013 Rising Stars in Banking: Jeff Gilbert

Jeff Gilbert, senior vice president of the $300 million Frontenac Bank, knows how to work with borrowers – on conventional deals and not so conventional deals..Born in Alabama, raised in Missouri, Gilbert has a bachelor's degree in human and organizational development with a minor in business administration. It's just the right background for helping customers. With 15 years of industry experience, particularly in commercial real estate lending, Gilbert has played a key role in helping Frontenac Bank work its way through the banking recession and has worked closely with management to reduce troubled assets and improve the bank's ratios. Frontenac Bank's headquarters are in St. Louis, although its charter is in Earth City, Mo. Gilbert works in the bank's St. Charles, Mo., office..Consider the unique case of Meramec Bottom Development LLC, a Frontenac Bank borrower. In 2009, owner John Komlos was looking for a way to fill his empty warehouse with renters. Today, Komlos's company has a long-term renter thanks to Gilbert's skill at structuring unique loans..A civil engineer, Komlos has been in good standing with Frontenac Bank since he opened his real estate development company in 2001. The company bought 10 acres of land and built its first warehouse that year. In 2006, it built a second warehouse on the property but was unable to fill the building..Sill struggling to find a renter but continuing to make payments on the loan in 2009, Komlos was approached by the Meramec Sharks, a local youth hockey club, about turning the warehouse into an ice rink. The 44-year-old club is a non-profit with more than 350 skaters ranging from 5 years old to 18..Komlos knew getting a loan to fund installation of an ice rink into the warehouse was a long shot, but he gave it his best effort, requiring a 20-year lease from the Sharks and going with a design that made it easy for the facility to remove the ice and convert back to a warehouse should things not work out..Komlos approached Gilbert for a $1 million loan in December 2009; the bank already had lent $7 million to build the warehouse. After deliberation, the bank decided to lend the money and everything has worked according to plan..Outside-the-box thinking is not new for Gilbert, who came to Frontenac Bank as a vice president of commercial lending in 2005. When the real-estate market meltdown came and the bank's noncurrent loans spiked to 7 percent of loans by 2009, Gilbert began to work out loans with struggling borrowers in addition to making new loans..That's when he began to prove himself to Rob Roberson, president of Frontenac Bank. "Jeff showed he had the ability to go to large borrowers, even ones who were disengaging, and make a connection. No one wants to fail. Jeff would find what was important to them and what needed to be done for us to turn the situation around," Roberson said..As the recession came into full swing, Gilbert became more practiced at workout negotiations. "In workout, you have to talk to people in an objective, inoffensive way," Roberson said. "That's how you find a win-win solution. Jeff does this; it's not a skill everyone possesses.".Gilbert consistently impresses Roberson with his ability to deal with people and credit. "First of all, it takes a special person to work on a problem loan one moment and then turn around and work on a new deal the next," he said. "But Jeff possesses another skill as well. There is a parallel between working out a deal and doing a deal. You can't sit there and dictate terms. Other banks want X covenants and Y ratios; what makes Jeff unique is that he doesn't offer a cookie cutter approach.".By the end of 2012, with Gilbert working through problem assets, Frontenac Bank's noncurrent loans dropped to 2.58 percent of its loans. "Now, with Jeff's help, our Texas ratio is down below 70 percent. We were well above 100 percent," Roberson said..Gilbert was so influential in helping turn the bank around, he was promoted to a senior vice president in May 2012. "Typically this level of promotion would happen later in a banker's career," Roberson said. "But Jeff deserves it. He has earned his stripes early."Other 2013 Rising Stars in Banking include:Chris Conrad, First Bank & Trust, Sioux Falls, S.D.Karen Brekke, Frandsen Bank & Trust, East Grand Forks, Minn.Ty Lucas, Nebraskaland National Bank, North Platte, Neb.James Klein, Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, Cedar Rapids, IowaKorey Schow, Bank of Keystone, Neb.Christie Obenauer, Union State Bank, Hazen, N.D.Matthew Howrey, North Salem State Bank, North Salem, Ind.