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With leadership, creativity and grit, Steve Sherlock fights to keep community banking strong in southeast Colorado.
Who says small community banks need "niche" banking to grow and prosper? Just ask Stephen Sherlock, president of the $108 million-asset Colorado East Bank & Trust Co. in Lamar and you'll know the answer is, not necessarily.
You'll also understand that Sherlock and his bank have become an underdog success story in the arid High Plains region of southeast Colorado for several reasons.
For one thing-despite difficult personal, competitive and economic challenges-Colorado East, under Sherlock's guidance, has managed to carve out a special profile in the community by offering-at a profit-a broad array of services to the bank's farmbusiness and retail clientele.
Sherlock, president of the Independent Bankers of Colorado, also has been an active community leader in bringing new businesses and jobs to Lamar. Small business owners rave about him. And Sherlock, now head of the local economic development commission, has had a hand over the years in recruiting companies-from a bus manufacturer to a fiberglass materials maker-that draw businessmen to Lamar from around the globe.
Because of that, conversations in Japanese, German, French or even Swahili can be often overheard at the Cow Palace Inn, a popular Lamar social spot.
At the same time, the 49-year-old-over the last three years-built his own four-branch community bank after being fired from a now-competing bank where he had worked for 19 years. Turning his dismissal into a new opportunity, he later pulled off a sometimes touch-and-go three-bank merger following on the heels of the state's ag depression.
"I have no animosity over what happened. It was a case of two different management styles." Sherlock says. "I was certainly hurt by the action, but look at the wonderful opportunity I now have."
Others say it was also a case of the new owner, who inherited the bank from his father, "doing a lot of poor second guessing" of Sherlock and other officers by calling the shots from his Nevada home.
"Steve is one of those natural leaders-the kind of individual whom everyone gravitates to for advice before a decision is made," observes Bob Beauprez, president of the Lafayette State Bank in Lafayette, Colo., and incoming vice president for the...