my work resume
25+ year Banking / Finance Executive
Born in the suburbs of Chicago, I always had a fascination with numbers, money and compounding. One of my first jobs was working as a bank teller in high school. After graduating college with an accounting degree and obtaining my CPA, I started working at a CPA/ consulting firm specializing directly into their banking group. This is where I learned the basics of banking.
Then I made some unique career choices in my pursuit of learning new things and creating value as I pursued my Finance MBA. After several years, I successfully transitioned from accounting to finance and then to capital markets but remained in the banking industry. For 10+ years, I managed all of Global Funding and Liquidity for one of the largest banks in the country (during the great financial crisis). From there I went on to be Treasurer / Chief Investment Officer at a regional bank and then I spent 5+ years as Chief Financial Officer for a publicly traded regional bank working on several transformative mergers. Currently, I'm an independent consultant (Maass Financial Consulting LLC), Board Member/Director and working on several personal projects.
my thoughts on the banking industry today
"It's an industry that is still consolidating!" - From >10,000 banks to <4,500 banks during my banking career
Banking has been around for 100s or likely 1000s of years in some form or another. Compared to most industries or even other countries, we still have more banks than likely necessary.
I've been involved in growing banks organically as well as participating in the great consolidation of the banking industry over my career (see graph). I've worked on dozens of bank acquisitions over the last 25+ years. For all of them (except 1), I was on the acquiring side of banks that were growing at mid-double-digit CAGRs (15%+).
Banking is not going away but competition from BigTech, FinTech, Credit Unions, CBDCs, non-bank companies and even bitcoin will continue to force more focus, specialization and likely more consolidation.
some unique work experiences/memories
