Banker of the Year: BB&T's Kelly King

 Litmus Test: "I created a measurement system 25 years ago for our community banks — I still keep the sheet in my desk — that's based on quality, profitability and growth in that order," BB&T Chief Executive Kelly King says in describing what he looks for in a good acquisition target. IMAGE: Black Horse Studio



Kelly King had to think fast.
King, still years away from BB&T's corporate office, had invited a colleague to go boating on a lake near Charlotte, N.C. The men, with their wives, were out on the lake when King realized the boat was quickly taking in water.
Water gushed into the craft, threatening to sink it. King quickly revved up the engine, racing forward to keep the intruding waters at bay. Asking his friend to handle steering, King found a way to plug the hole, keeping everyone dry while saving the outing.
Henry Williamson, a former chief operating officer at BB&T and the colleague on the boat, loves to tell that story to illustrate King's ability to handle crises.

"That very much sums up Kelly and his modus operandi," Williamson says. "He identifies the problem and finds the solution."
King has been given ample opportunity to practice crisis management since becoming BB&T's chief executive in 2009 and chairman a year later, navigating the Winston-Salem, N.C., company through the aftermath of the financial crisis and an environment of low interest rates and heightened regulation. He has also returned to making traditional bank acquisitions, which many regional banks eschewed, to enter new markets and build revenue.
For steering the Winston-Salem, N.C., company through an extended period of industry adversity, while providing a blueprint for large-scale M&A, King has been named American Banker's Banker of the Year for 2015.
Career Salesman
It is hard to fathom that King, who has spent more than four decades at BB&T, almost chose another path. In fact, he seriously considered offers for sales and marketing posts from the likes of Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson as he wrapped up business school.
Those moves would have made sense for King, who helped pay his way through college by selling vacuum cleaners, men's clothing and hardware. Doing so was a necessity for King, who initially was raised in public housing before his family started renting houses on farms in eastern North Carolina.
"We were really, really dirt poor," he recalls. "My dad was kind of a farmer who worked for different people. When I was 13, we were still living in a plank house with no insulation or running water. You know what poor is when you go to use an outhouse in January when its 15 degrees outside."
King quickly took to sales, boasting that he once scored on 13 consecutive vacuum-sales pitches, even winning over a family with hardwood floors. It was an amazing feat; each cleaner cost about $500 back in 1971. That experience taught him an important lesson that he has carried with him ever since.
"You have to internally believe in what you're doing," he says. "That translates into passion, which translates into good execution and good results."
King only interviewed with BB&T because Williamson, his good friend and classmate at Eastern Carolina University, persuaded him to do so. His college guidance counselor urged him to consider the people he would work with in making an employment decision. Realizing that Williamson was on board at BB&T — and feeling comfortable with the other people he had met — prompted King to go into banking.
It was a move that has defined his career for 43 years and counting.
Speaking Up to the Boss
King turned out to be a perfect fit for BB&T's sales culture. His keen interest in growth also played an important role on the management teams of his predecessors Vincent Lowe and John A. Allison.
"Kelly was always there pushing marketing, sales and growth," Williamson says. King often served as the "accelerator" in executive-team meetings, while other executives, such as Chief Credit Officer Ken Chalk, would serve as the brakes.
"It was an intentional balance," Allison says. "Kelly was certainly the most aggressive, though I think he has become more balanced today, partly because of the environment."
"I had the most natural inclination to invest in growth," King explains, noting he and Allison were viewed as BB&T's biggest change agents.
"We were more willing to make the investments and take the risk," King adds. "When we had conversations, John would bring up an issue and I was always the first one to comment and the others would follow. … After 30 minutes or so we would come to great decisions. Everybody knew their role, and they were comfortable with it."
Keeping that in mind, it is interesting to realize that Allison, King and the other executives once considered leaving BB&T.
By 1980, King was one of five up-and-coming executives who remained a level shy of senior management. The group had become increasingly frustrated with a staid pace of grow, and each had been considering whether to leave BB&T, which was still a small, rural bank.
One afternoon, King was walking to lunch with then-CEO Thorne Gregory, who asked the young executive how things were going.
"Things aren't going well at all," King recalls telling his boss. "I think that, if things don't change, some of the young guys on the team are going to leave."

via