Photo/Bonnie Adams
By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Southborough – Dozens of local business professional gathered at the historic Southborough Community House Nov. 29 for a special evening of networking sponsored by Main Street Bank (MSB).
The second annual “Local Helping Local Holiday Networking event” was geared, MSB’ s Southborough Branch Manager Sue Mankaruos said, as a way to help local business people get to know each other in a relaxed, informal way.
“This is such a great community, so warm and welcoming,” she said. “So we thought this would be a nice way locals to meet other locals.”
And as a member of the local business community themselves, it was also a way, she added, for the bank to share their thanks with other businesses for their support.
This past spring, Marlborough Savings Bank merged with North Middlesex Savings Bank to create Main Street Bank. At the Nov. 29 event, Richard Bennett, Marlborough Savings Bank’s former president and CEO, who is now MSB’s CEO and Walter Dwyer, North Middlesex’s former CEO, who is now the president of MSB, each spoke for a few minutes on how that process evolved over the past year.
Bennett noted that he and Dwyer had met many times before the merger was completed. Each felt, he said, that the core values and principles each institution respectively had would be a good fit for each other.
“Our main goal was cultural alignment,” Bennett said. “We had a lot of challenges along the way but really the transition was as smooth as possible. And we owe a lot of thanks to our employees for that.”
Dywer noted that while the cultures of the two banks were similar, they were also, in other respects, still a bit different.
“That’s okay, because cultures get built up but our values are what are really important and those are the same,” he added. “That’s what made all the difference in helping this merger go smoothly.
“Rick and I have been very busy working on all the nuts and bolts of the merger. Now we are hoping to have more time to go out meet customers and other business people, like yourselves,” he told those gathered. “That’s an important part of our job and what we really like to do.”
For more information on Main Street Bank, visit www.bankmainstreet.com.
