Drew with former colleagues Pat Frigerio and Kay Hansen at a North Shore Bank company picnic in the 1980s.

As part of our centennial coverage, the Senior Leader Showcase series highlights executives who’ve been instrumental in helping North Shore Bank celebrate 100 years of success.

Drew will celebrate 40 years with the bank next January.

Drew Wallach would have been surprised if someone had told him when he started here in 1984 that he’d still be at North Shore Bank almost 40 years later. “My wife, Marianne, and I are not from Wisconsin, but came here in 1980 to work for another bank,” says the chief financial officer, who was senior vice president in charge of investments before he was promoted to his current role in 2010. “We had just bought a house and were expecting our first child when I was able to get my job managing the investment portfolio at North Shore. Our family roots became established, and the opportunity here grew.”

For the most part, surprises haven’t played too much of a role in his career since then — he notes that he’s still working at the same desk in the same room. Consistency, of course, is a desirable quality in a CFO, especially at a company that has always valued steadiness.

“Drew and I are among the longest-tenured employees of North Shore Bank,” says executive chairman Jim McKenna. “We’ve experienced a lot for many decades. Most importantly, we’ve had those experiences together. As such, I trust Drew totally and completely because of his thought process and intellect. He has helped make North Shore what it is today.”

Drew talked to Shorelines about his nearly four decades at North Shore Bank.

What is your motivation or guiding principle? And has it changed over the years?
I have been so fortunate to have a position here that gives me an opportunity to make a difference and fits my skills so well. I’m trained as an investment analyst and found those skills have many applications here. Early on, I think that part of what made North Shore so special for me was that senior people here welcomed and encouraged my efforts. The positive environment helped motivate me to do more, and that kept building to a higher level. That hasn’t changed and continues today.

As time passed and I became more senior myself, I have found that the people I work with are so capable and willing to engage creatively. We have a remarkable team here. It is great fun to work together. I think we really do create something special and unique, and it is rewarding to be a part of that.

Do you think of your career in terms of “chapters” or different phases when you reflect on it?
Not really. Weirdly, I have worked each day in the same room, at the same desk. It’s been unusually stable for me — but of course, the world has changed constantly. As a company, it seems to me that we have changed so much in sophistication and technology, but at the core, in our mission and values, have not changed at all.

Drew, at left, with other senior leaders in 2002. Next to him are chief operating officer Dick Brophy, executive secretary JoAnne Flynn, then–president and CEO Jim McKenna, and senior vice president retail banking Steve Steiner.

Are there any key moments or choices that got you to where you are today?
If you’re asking what I think brings success, it’s been more organic than event-driven. Not sudden, but solid progress: stepping forward to engage when opportunities arise, being engaged, and rising to the next one. My career has been a long process of building, of learning and applying the accumulation of experiences to the next opportunity.

There’s a very regular annual cycle here at the bank. It starts with an annual review of the strategic plan, and then from that we build the operating plan and the budget. After the budget is approved, we all get to work and do it, with monthly progress measured, analyzed, redirected, and engaged again. Living it might seem repetitive from a distance, but it is always different up close.

What’s something about you that might surprise the people you work with?
About me? There’s not much. I hope I’m pretty much what I seem.

What surprises me about them is when they engage creatively, take it to the next level, and deliver beyond expectations. And that happens often these days.

And what do you think is the most important thing you can do now to set up North Shore for another successful 100 years?
It seems to me that North Shore is a very stable platform in a very turbulent world. We are able to take on the challenge of meeting customer needs in a safe and sound manner. It is always important to maintain balance, to not do too little or go too far.

All of that matters, and in addition, you have to be creative and have fun. I think that is how we got here, and it will carry us forward.