The Stefanski file
Born: Cleveland
Education: Gilmour Academy for high school; Heidelberg College in Tiffin, with a major in economics; and a master’s degree from Baldwin-Wallace University in systems management.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My older brother would always employ me. I worked for him in many things: paper routes, we had a landscaping business with our neighbors, we shoveled driveways, then I worked for him — he owns a swimming pool company and has for the last 40-plus years, and I worked for him doing that, cleaning pools. What I learned there was I met my wife! Actually, great experiences working with customers, because we worked primarily in the eastern suburbs. Many of the executives who ran all the big companies here in town were pool customers. Getting to know them and working with them was a great work experience. I learned a lot, I learned a lot in sales, I learned a lot in customer management and I also learned that I never wanted to work for family again, because it was tough. And then I went to — How dumb was I? — work for my dad. What did I learn?
Who do you admire in business?
I’m a relationship manager, so I would say if I’m going to subscribe to people in business or gurus in business I’m more on the relationship side. For example, one of the books I have by my bedside is Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” The other book I have by my bedside is Joe Ehrmann’s “Season of Life.”
What is the best business advice you ever received?
I think that coming from my dad, if you run another kind of company, and you’re selling nails or you’re selling hardware, you don’t have to have a strong net worth. You don’t have to build up capital in the organization. So leveraging that capital may be good for manufacturing companies or other companies or paying out to shareholders a bigger dividend. But here in the banking industry, having a strong balance sheet is really important. You can’t leverage the balance sheet when you’re in banking. You shouldn’t because when you run into tough economic times, it’s just like anyone else who’s leveraged even their personal balance sheet. What happens? You go bankrupt. You need the capital. My dad used to call it rainy day capital. That was my dad’s mantra. You just can’t leverage. He built his company — this company — to be depression-proof. To have more capital than anyone else, make loans to people who were really qualified and who were going to pay them back.
What is your definition of business success?
I read the profile of a CEO here in town that talked about all his accomplishments in business. Business success doesn’t mean much unless you have personal success with family and friends. That’s why I say family first, business second. If you’re really talking about business — if you create an atmosphere based on a set of values and live those values and you try to exemplify that with the people that you work with and live with, you gain their trust. Notice I’m not talking about making money. I’m just talking about building a business that’s built to last. And that means that you’ve developed this corporate culture based on a set of values, you have buy-ins from all the people who work with you and for you, and your management team is a solid reflection of you and what you stand for as a leader.
The Stefanski Legacy
It’s only natural that Marc Stefanski, son of Third Federal Savings & Loan founders Ben and Gerome Stefanski who based the institution on values such as trust, should start his financial career at AmeriTrust, formerly Cleveland Trust Co.
There are five children in the family, Ben S. II, Hermine, Abigail, Floyd and Marc, and over the years, each one tried working for Third Federal, but only Marc had the penchant for banking and stuck it out. He joined Third Federal in 1982 after spending five years at AmeriTrust.
“My personality is different than my brothers and sisters,” he says. “The fact that I’m more of a relationship person than anyone in our family helps. I don’t think that’s the overall qualification, but I sort of did the math. My dad was 80-something when I joined; I was 38 or so. I should be able to outlast my dad. Of course, there were days I wasn’t sure.
“My dad’s health had not been the best. He had a heart attack in 1978 or so. He worked well into 1987. He was 89 when he died in 1991,” Marc says.
“I think the most difficult decision that my father had to make, he didn’t make; he left it up to my mom,” he says. “Because he had a stroke and was incapacitated, my mom had to decide who would run Third Federal, which I think was a very tough, emotional time for the entire family.”
While Third Federal now has a succession plan in place in case of an emergency, it’s too early to plan beyond that, Marc says. His son Brad works in the risk department and daughter Melissa, the youngest at 18, had a summer internship in the call center. Alex, Kyle and Ashley are his other children.
“There’s a serious interest by everyone in the family in terms of banking; also, I have nieces and nephews, too, who could be very well-qualified if they have or they show an interest. In fact, my nephew Ben is on the board, so there are a lot of Stefanskis who could join.”
