Ron, dressed appropriately for his 35th anniversary celebration.

Process risk analyst Ron Olson celebrated 35 years with North Shore Bank last month. In his time here, he’s been a teller, a personal banker, teller supervisor, and branch manager at Bayshore, as well as working in loan processing and servicing. His colleagues recognized the big event with a tiki bar–themed party because of his long-standing love for those tropical hangouts.

“Ron has been with us for 35 years, and I cannot tell you how grateful we are for his service,” said VP loan operations Nicole Daniels. “Through even the most demanding of times, Ron is always able to bring humor to the situation. He is a master reviewer of all things lending and has an innate ability to identify areas for process improvement, shaving minutes or hours off of process and procedures. Cheers to a fabulous 35 years and onto another 35 more!”

“It’s hard to believe!” Ron said of reaching the three-and-a-half-decade milestone. “But it’s really satisfying to have been a part of this for so long.” He spoke to Shorelines about why he’s stuck around, among other topics.

What’s kept you at the bank for 35 years?
Probably being able to take advantage of the opportunities that came to me, moving from one position to another and getting to do different things. The last eight to ten years especially, I’ve really been in a comfort zone, doing work that has really played to my strengths. I tend to work better by myself. And a major part of my job now is reviewing loan documents and other materials, and I just have a knack for noticing if something isn’t right.

Your role recently expanded into Treasury Services, too. How has that been?
Yes, the bank made a decision last year to combine the Treasury Services area with commercial loan servicing. There are a lot of commonalities — a lot of the same customers and systems are involved — so it’s just a little more efficient to do it this way. There’s a lot to learn, not just for me, but for the rest of the department! Our major goal for this year is to master all of that knowledge. I appreciate the new challenge! I need something to keep me busy for the next five years.

Nicole said you were a master of process improvement. What kind of work does that involve?
A lot of it is little things. We had a wire transfer process that seemed kind of lengthy — emails going back and forth for every transaction, up to five or six. I took that apart and got it down to just one email per transfer. They’re being done 30 minutes faster than they were before. Or the way the department scans things or redoing forms, going from two pages to one. There’s just a lot of little things that add up. The big project for this year is to come up with a paperless workflow.

Last of all, what’s the story with your love of tiki bars?
Who doesn’t love tiki bars? I’ve always liked them — the artwork, the midcentury modern design. I built a tiki bar in my basement about ten years ago, and whenever we go on vacation, I always look to see if there’s a tiki bar in town.