During last month’s convention, Tom Keenan was presented with MIB’s 2025 Outstanding Associate Member Award. As the owner of Keenan & Partners, Tom exemplifies everything it means to be a member of MIB. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tom and discuss his background, his career and learned more about what membership in MIB means to him. The following are excerpts from our conversation.

Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in a rural community in the state of Maryland. At the age of 10, I started working on local farms. I helped bring in the hay on horse and sheep farms, which eventually turned into full-time work on dairy farms during the summer months. That experience taught me a work ethic that I wouldn’t have learned elsewhere. 

I was sent away to boarding school during my high school years. From there, I went to the College of Wooster in Ohio. During my junior year of college, I had the opportunity to travel and experience the beauty of the American West. It was then that I knew I couldn’t live on the East Coast.

Straight out of college, I moved out west to Portland, Oregon, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve been fortunate to have a career that allows me to travel throughout the West, including the great state of Montana. 

I’ve had three phases of my career. When I worked on farms, I helped build barns and fences, which led me to become a general construction contractor after college. I did that for the first 10-12 years of my career. 

I then moved into commercial real estate development throughout the western United States. I did that all the way up until the Great Recession in 2008, when my career changed immensely. There was no more development work because you couldn’t find a bank loan to build any type of new building during that time. I was sitting on my hands for a month or two, wondering what I’d do next. That was when I received a higher calling. 

I had a lot of community banking relationships. I’d never owned a development firm, but I had arranged many construction, development and land acquisition loans as a borrower. A few months after the recession hit, I started getting calls from those same bankers I worked with, telling me they had a number of distressed projects — condominiums, apartment buildings and even some gas stations and retail stores — that were half built. The developers decided not to complete them because they knew there was no market to sell the finished product. These semi-completed projects were going to be mothballed. The bankers asked me if, with my construction background, I could tell them what the budget would be to complete that project, what the project was currently worth, what it would be worth at completion and if it was worth it to sell that non-performing loan to an investment group or somebody other than the bank. The end goal was to get that distressed asset off the books. 

Within six months, I had a full-time job advising community banks. I helped stave off failures. We figured out how to get bad assets out the door to clean up the books so banks could raise the additional capital they needed to weather that storm. It was an honor and a privilege to be able to help during that time. I did that until 2013. 

When we finally finished working and helping clients with that distressed asset book, my company boomed in a different direction. I had banks calling and saying, “We appreciate all the work you did with us in this real estate aspect, now we’re going to look at repositioning our branch footprints. We want to open some branches; we want to close some branches. Can you help us establish the value of this branch we’ve had for 80 years? If we were to close this branch location and sell it today, what is the branch worth? And if it’s above our current net book value, can you help us to find a way to produce a yield on that to produce a gain on sale?” That turned into a whole new line of work that we’re still doing today. And in that same vein, banks also call at times to ask: “Can you tell us what our deposits are worth? Can you tell us what our loans are worth? And what is our whole bank worth? And can you help us achieve the highest and best results with these items as well?” Being called on to assist with these generationally important items is an absolute honor.

Through all the history I’ve described, I’ve had my wonderful wife with me. We’ve been married for 35 years now. We have two adult children and one grandson, and I’m really proud of both my kids and so lucky to have been married for all this time.

What does this award recognition mean to you? 

When I first found out I’d be receiving this award, it took me by surprise. I was left speechless. This recognition means more than I can possibly express in words. I don’t typically seek awards, but the fact that the association saw fit to give me one for doing the things that we do every day leaves me with an immense sense of pride and appreciation for MIB and its entire membership.

What has been the most rewarding part of your career?

The most rewarding part has been the last 15 years, since founding Keenan & Partners in 2009 and helping community banks solve problems. Community banks are the backbone of our country, supplying 60% of the small business loans in the U.S. and 70% of all ag loans. I’ve always respected the community banking industry. It has built the prosperity of our nation and helping them is immensely gratifying. 

What is your greatest career accomplishment? 

My greatest accomplishment is starting my own company. It means I get to control the ethical decisions and how we treat our clients, and make sure decisions are made with integrity. 

How has MIB helped you throughout your career? What are the benefits of membership? 

I first became involved with MIB in 2018 when I was growing my business outside my home state of Oregon. At the very first convention I attended that year, I didn’t know anybody. I was welcomed by the leadership, by the staff and most importantly, by the membership. The leadership found me immediately at the first night’s reception and said, “Thank you for being a business partner. Let us introduce you to some of our banker members.” I don’t get that treatment at a lot of state association conventions I attend, so their actions really stood out. The membership followed up with me afterwards and have always stayed in touch.

I’ve been given active opportunities to participate in everything that MIB does. The benefit of membership is that you’ll expand your horizons. They’ll always make sure that you’re invited to play a role, not just to attend an event.

I’d like to add that Jim Brown has done a wonderful job. He’ll be sorely missed, and I wish him all the luck in the next chapter of his career. Shane Scanlon is a great replacement; they couldn’t have done better in picking their next leader. I also want to mention that Marie Stark will be missed. She’s been great to work with, and I wish her all the best in retirement. And working with Terri James is always a pleasure.

What is the best advice you have ever received, and how has it been applied in your daily life?

When I was at boarding school, it was a structured environment, which was very hard at times, but there were a lot of good things that came from the experience as well. The school gave us five words to live by: honor, integrity, respect, humility and excellence. And I’ve done my best to live by all five of those. I didn’t really understand them well at 14 or 15 years old, but here I am at 60 years old, 45 years later, repeating them back to you. 

I try to remember all five of those every day — and I don’t just mean at work. I mean in all aspects of my life and with other people, whether it be clients I’m doing business with, association staff and leaders who I may interact with, people I meet on the street or my own family. Trying to incorporate those five things into my daily routine has helped me succeed.