Content area
Full text
When Gov. Robert D. Orr signed the legislation authorizing cross-county banking and permitting bank acquisition, most banking experts figured that the banks in the larger cities, such as Indianapolis, would gobble up the banks in the smaller cities, such as Columbus.
So it came as a shock to some of those experts when one of the first acquisitions announced was the exact opposite of that -- as Columbus-based Irwin Union Corp., the holding company for Irwin Union Bank and Trust Co., acquired Indianapolis-domiciled Midwest National Bank. But that shouldn't have come as a surprise, after all, to people who know the story of Irwin Union and who know its chairman, John A. Nash.
"We were interested in acquiring a bank in Indianapolis," Nash says. "We wanted to get into that market. That (Midwest National) was the only bank the first in line at the acquisition window, banks there." And as for being one of the first in line at the acquisition with Nash has a simple explanation.
"We had established a relationship with the bank in 1984," he reviews. "We had been in conversations before the bill was signed. That facilitated our being in the right place at the right time."
Being in the right place at the right time is something that has characterized both Irwin Union and John Nash over the years. Although perhaps it's not that, as much as a mark of a well-managed bank and a well-managed life, respectively.
A visitor to John Nash's office in Columbus can sense almost immediately that the 48-year-old father of three enjoys what he's doing and where he's doing it. A native Hoosier, Nash was born in Indianapolis and reared in Franklin. After high school, he went to Indiana University and received both his bachelor's and master of business administration degrees from the Bloomington school. That he stayed in school to get the advanced degree, in that day and age, shows a little of the insight that has helped Nash get where he is today.
"We didn't have the term 'yuppie' in those days," Nash recalls. "But you could see it was the degree to get. It was further training, and it gave you an advantage in job placement and starting salary."
Nash looks back...