Pub. 7 2019 Issue 4

12 The Community Banker www.mibonline.org 1. Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up and attend school? I grew up in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, about a mile from the beach. I graduated from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science before getting my B.A. in Economics from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and my J.D. from Tulane Law School. 2. You have been Montana’s Commissioner of Banking for almost a decade. Tell Montana’s community bankers some- thing about yourself that they may not know about you. I spent my summers during college dissecting big game fish at a marine research laboratory in Mississippi. The results were used in age and growth studies for developing fishery regulations. 3. What are the Division’s top three goals for the year 2020? a. Prepare for re-accreditation by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors this summer. b. Expand use of data analytics to i) improve risk focus examina- tions, ii) improve the offsite monitoring process for depositories, and iii) provide early warning indicators for problems arising in the financial services sector. c. Expand use of offsite examination tools to reduce examiner travel and examination travel costs. 4. What do you enjoy doing in your free time — when you have free time? I love to travel. Road trips somewhere new, flying somewhere tropi- cal, or taking a few minutes during a work trip to stop by a museum or gallery and learn something new. 5. If you weren’t the Commissioner of Banking, what do you think you would be doing professionally? Maybe teaching at a law school or doing policy research and development in the area of financial services. 6. What is the most rewarding aspect of working with Mon- tana’s community bankers? I love Montana’s small towns, and I genuinely believe that these communities are best served by a local bank that knows their customers and the needs of the area. Working with Montana’s community bankers has taught me so much about the intercon- nectedness of the success of rural communities and the ability to MELANIE HALL AND MONTANA BANKING Cover Story