Michael Jones
President and CEO, Institution for Savings
Age: 52
Industry experience: 30 years
When 2020 began, the Institution for Savings expected a year of large gatherings and celebrations, not closed branches and social distancing. This year marks the Newburyport-based bank’s 200th anniversary, and as the bank focused on keeping employees safe and helping customers affected by the coronavirus crisis, celebrations were placed on the back burner, said Michael Jones, Institution for Savings’ president and CEO for the past 10 years.
Employees still found ways to move forward with some events, including the bank’s annual Credit for Life fair on May 21 and 22. This year was the 10th anniversary for the annual event, where high school juniors from across the North Shore learn about finances. While it wasn’t easy, Jones said bank employees were able to put together a virtual event for more than 800 students.
Q: What celebrations did the bank hold for the 200th anniversary before the pandemic?
A: We were incredibly lucky to get our annual meeting done because that was on March 9, which was really big because that was attended by about 350 people, and literally within days everything was shut down. In February, we had employees do 200 random acts of kindness. Whatever they came up with for some type of random act of kindness – like picking up somebody’s grocery tab – we were able to do. In March, we donated 200 breakfast bags to an organization called Our Neighbor’s Table and another organization called Open Door.
Q: What adjustments did you make to other events?
A: The primary adjustments that we had to make had to do with gatherings we had planned. We had a celebration that we were going to do in April that had to be canceled. The trustees had given the bank a nice plaque on a brownstone stem, and the event was going to be attended by quite a few people. We even had invited Gov. [Charlie] Baker to this. A big gathering for our customer base in July also had to be canceled.
The nice thing is, we had such a decent plan to begin with, that we didn’t have to fully adjust everything. In April, we were able to donate 200 trees to various cities and towns in our market. Most of them got somewhere between 10 and 15 trees, and they can plant them around their city or town. We were able to get those out without a major problem because we just did it through our local nurseries and landscaping companies. We have transitioned some as well. We donated gift bags for seniors in May. Those bags now have hand sanitizers, puzzles and books, but probably would have been a little bit different [before the pandemic].
We sponsor a huge road race here in town during the Yankee Homecoming, which is a huge event here in Newburyport. That’s all been canceled, although we didn’t cancel it completely. It will be done virtually where people will sign up, and they actually have to do the 10–mile run on their own, and then we’ll send them a t-shirt. We’re trying to be creative in terms of continuing to have virtual or do–on–your–own type events.
Q: How did the Credit for Life virtual fair come about?
A: This was another big year for us because it was going to be the 10th annual Credit for Life fair, and we have a little over 1,000 students attend this and about 200 volunteers. We had heard from the schools asking if there was anything we could still do for them. A year ago, we had developed an app for the students to get an idea of what to expect at a Credit for Life fair. So, we really piggybacked off that initial app to say, “Ok, how can we make this so we can get it pretty close to what they would typically have in a live session? If we start to really build this app a little bit further, how can we actually have the same intent in terms of helping the students budget for what they’ll expect when they get out into the workforce after college or even right out of high school?”
So, we basically said we could pull this off virtually, where somebody sits at their PC or with their tablet or even their smartphone, and the app lets them download the occupation that they’re going to have and the actual budget sheet, which will give them an indication of how much they’ll make, what their monthly take–home pay is, and what they can really allocate for housing or for clothing or transportation or trips. Very similar to the booth that they would see live in the gymnasium, they’re going to be able to see with this app. It’s nice for the students to have a little bit of a change after what they’ve been dealing with in terms of Zoom sessions and various assignments.
Q: What are thoughts the bank reaching its 200th anniversary?
A: We did a nice video for our 200th anniversary and should have an anniversary book completed by the end of this year. When we were in the process of those, I always thought, “What was it like for those CEOs that had to get through World War I and II and the Great Depression and even the Spanish flu and 9/11 and what did the leaders have to go through during those tough times?” Yet we never would have envisioned this happening in our 200th year with the coronavirus. That’s going to lead to a pretty extensive chapter in this book, one that we were certainly not anticipating last year around this time when we were underway with our anniversary preparation. So, looking back on what some of the other leaders had to go through, now I’m at the helm under this situation. I’m optimistic that things are going to work out, but time will tell. I think everybody will remember the 200th anniversary for sure as a result of this.
Jones’ Five Favorite Activities
- Vacation with family
- Exercise
- Listen to music
- Watch college basketball
- Play poker with friends
