After graduating from UW–Stevens Point with a degree in limnology and biology, Josh Marron was laser-focused on a career either as a game warden, a park ranger, or studying fish and their habitats. In fact, Marron, a hobby fisherman, was so sure of his career path that he asked a friend to tattoo a fish on his right arm.
He landed an internship and later a job with the Department of Natural Resources and was stationed at Escanaba Lake Field Station just outside Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, when a conversation with a family friend one fishing weekend cast him in a different direction. He took the bait.
Marron, 42, started his banking career in 2004 at the former Middleton Community Bank and joined Park Bank about 12 years later. Last October, he was named president and chief banking officer, working in a profession that hooked him 20 years prior.
Recently, we discussed his seismic pivot.
What prompted the career shift?
I was living in Phelps, Wisconsin at my parent’s place and Charlie Thieme, a friend and neighbor from McFarland, also was up there. Charlie was the bank president at Middleton Community Bank at the time. I used to mow his lawn. We were out fishing when he asked if I was happy living up there and doing what I was doing. “Absolutely,” I told him. I loved it! My job was fun and invigorating and what I thought was meaningful work in a science field where I thought I belonged.
But after several discussions over the course of that weekend, Charlie suggested I move south and work for him at the bank. He thought I had the right personality for a successful banking career, but I knew nothing about banking! So, that Monday morning I drove into Eagle River and bought a Finance for Dummies book thinking I’d learn everything in 100 pages. After about five pages, I’m wondering, “What the heck did I do? This is crazy!”
I did move back to Madison, bought a suit, and about six weeks later started as a personal banking assistant. Twenty years later, I’m the president of a bank and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Fishing is my hobby now.
What attracted you to banking?
I loved the people part. I knew Charlie was making a difference in other people’s lives. Anytime we were out, people would come up and thank him for helping them with their mortgage, or their kids with a student loan, or he gave someone a business loan when they needed it most. He had so many feel-good stories and his deep connection to the community really resonated with me. It was a huge learning curve for me, and sometimes I felt like I had to work twice as hard because I never wanted anyone to look at me as a forced hire, or as Charlie’s buddy, so I put all my time and effort into learning the job.
What advice would you offer young bankers coming up behind you?
These days, it seems everybody wants to be at the top of the organization so fast. For me, there were a lot of steps along the way to work my way up to president of this bank. I went back for a graduate degree at the Graduate School of Banking and got an executive leadership certificate from UW–Madison.
I advise younger bankers to soak everything up while at the branch level. The career opportunities are endless! You can go into business banking, commercial real estate, operations, and some people choose the compliance route or mortgage lending. Individuals with a desire to build relationships around Dane County can find really cool jobs within this industry. Many of our bankers don’t have finance degrees, but they’re great at relationship-building.
Tell us about Park Bank.
We opened in 1966 and have had phenomenal growth since then. When I joined in 2016, we were about half the size we are now — just under $800 million in assets. Almost eight years later, we’ve nearly doubled in size with $1.5 billion in assets. My goal is to continue to grow, and we’re looking on the doorstep of $2 billion.
We have moved away from using the word lender within our organization because everyone here is a banker! I don’t care if you’re in our facilities area, in compliance, or have an administrative role. Park Bank has 180-plus individuals on staff, all bankers. Collectively, we provide advice, guidance, and support, recognizing that relationships are so much more than a transaction. When we win at something, we win together.
We also allow our people 16 paid hours of volunteer time and logged over 4,500 hours of volunteer community service. As a bank, we donated over $350,000 last year into the local community. That makes me really proud.
How has banking changed through the years?
You know, it’s amazing. We used to be able to just do things on a handshake and a napkin. I say that somewhat kiddingly, but in some cases compliance and regulatory changes have made things more challenging.
We’ve gone through some hard times. There were closures during the Great Recession and some banks failed. Only half the banks in this country still exist from when I started. There are only about 170 Wisconsin-chartered banks now, a sizeable decrease from when I first started. A lot of that is just due to mergers and acquisitions. We’re seeing more and more M&A [mergers and acquisitions] every year.
What else keeps you up at night?
Navigating an economy that’s constantly changing and finding and retaining the right talent top my list. Also, balancing the old with the new. Banking is not always the quickest to adjust to new technologies, so how do we keep old school, traditional banking clients happy while also trying to change and adapt to new technologies for the newer generations?
The online presence of banks has made it easy for individuals to not come into the bank, but at the same time, we just expanded into Cross Plains, so branch locations have become much more strategic for community banks. People still need to make a trip to the bank. Businesses still depend on individuals, and clients want to see their bankers when they need them. There always will be the convenience of online or mobile banking, but we will never go away from brick and mortar branches.
To whom would you most attribute your success?
Certainly Charlie Thieme, but my parents always believed in me and gave me the support to do what I wanted. I remember telling them, “I will never be in business. I will never be a businessman.” I was determined to take the natural resources/science route. They supported my change of careers, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Someone once asked me what I would do after retiring, and I couldn’t come up with an easy answer. So, I asked my wife what she thought, and she answered, “You’re a banker, buddy. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
