Newly named president of United Community Bank Lynn Harton sees big changes and growth ahead
Lynn Harton was named president of United Community Bank last week. He had served as vice president and CEO of United Community Banks Inc., parent company of United Community Bank (UCB), as well as chief operating officer of UCB. Now as UCB’s president and COO, Harton will continue to focus on day-to-day operation of United Community Bank. Two days after donning the new title, he took some time to let UBJ learn a bit more about the bank’s new leader and his perspective.
What have been some highlights since joining the company in 2012?
How the bank has embraced organizational changes like centralizing operations like the credit card business and coming to Greenville [last year]. We also put a thousand people through sales training about focusing on big conversations that trigger financial needs, rather than products. We added a health care lending specialty business. We repaid TARP [federal Troubled Asset Relief Program] funds ahead of expectations without raising additional equity, and the memorandum of understanding with regulators has been lifted.
What are you looking forward to this year?
We’re putting the bad stuff behind us as we focus on organic growth and eye acquisition. We want to increase our density in the area around Atlanta and expand in Knoxville and Charlotte, and coastal areas in and near Charleston. It depends on when and where the best partners present themselves.
Where is there room for change?
We need to be better salespeople. We’ve got the best customer scores, but our sales scores are some of the worst in the business. The customer satisfaction isn’t translating to sales, which just doesn’t make sense. That’s a problem to solve, and the solution includes product improvement, incentive plans and other things.
What’s your personal leadership style?
What I’ve been doing is getting the bank ready to take on those growth opportunities. My job is to look at the environment and decide where we need to go. I let [employees] go and I work for them, asking teams what they need. We’ve got 27 different projects led by teams within the bank, because they’re the ones that know how to do it.
Who are your mentors?
[United Community Banks Inc.] CEO Jimmy Talent and I have been good friends for about eight years. Being a CEO is a lonely job, so to have that person that understands what it’s like to lead an organization, and to have complete trust and bounce things off of each other – I’ve been in enough places to know that that’s rare.
I also talk to Henry Williamson, former COO at BB&T; Jack Moore, former CEO of Union Planters Bank; and Carl Carande, head wealth consultant at KPMG.
Then there’s my wife, Flavia, my not-so-secret asset. She’s smart, direct and observant. You need business advice and political advice, and she’s my best advisor in the latter area, I would say.
What’s the last book you read?
I’m almost embarrassed to say, but “The Wolf of Wall Street.” It was fascinating in a watching-a-train-wreck sort of way. It was unbelievable, yet believable in a way. I usually read either hardcore business or way-out fiction.
I like to keep track of economics, too. I’m interested in the impact of the [Federal Reserve Bank] expanding its balance sheet and the interrelatedness of Europe and China. It’s been kind of unbelievable the [economic growth] numbers coming out of China, but I think you’re starting to see some of the cracks in that. I haven’t figured it all out, but I like to read people who think they know.
And how does that inform your work at UCB?
It makes you aware of more volatility that could affect us. For example, our bank has a very conservative risk profile on our balance sheet compared to most, about 40 percent of investments in variable rates. Sure, were giving up current earnings to that, but we think it’s right because of the global environment we’re in.
How do you spend your down time?
Golf. I started playing at age 30. I’d joined a club in Wilmington, N.C., so my daughters could swim in the pool, but then I figured I might as well take advantage of the golf. We also love great restaurants and trying out new ones. And we love to travel. My wife is from an Italian family, grew up in Brazil and majored in French, so she speaks four languages and makes a great travel companion.
Any favorite places to visit?
The Amalfi Coast in Italy. If you told me I could only take one more trip, that’s where I would go back to.
