One of the first things that young people learn as they climb into adulthood is that money is necessary to survive. The pursuit of money is critical to success, and where you put your money can mean the difference between losing it or protecting it. If you are lucky, you will have a chance to work with men like Wesley Gillespie.
Gillespie, the President of ERIEBANK, a community bank that has branches in Ohio and Pennsylvania offers a different type of banking. It still offers banking with a personal touch. In fact, if you speak with Gillespie, he will tell you that banking touches everything and that community banking is the only way to go. His belief systems might have something to do with how he was raised.
Gillespie was born in Harlem, New York, in the mid-sixties when life was real, and times were tough. Born with a twin brother, Presley Gillespie, they learned very early that he and his brother would have to grow up faster than most. The touch of life impacted both brothers when their mother passed while they were two years old.
Their father, who was a much older dad by the time they were born, knew he was going to need help raising the twins, and two older sisters, so an aunt from Philadelphia came to New York to help raise the brothers and their two sisters.
“Since my dad was older, he really couldn’t keep up with my brother and I in the big city, so we had the freedom to do what we wanted,” Gillespie said.
And like any typical twins the two were inseparable their entire childhood. Whether they played stickball in the street or opened fire hydrants to stay cool in the summer, they relied on each other for friendship and companionship, as well as judgement and decision making. It was around the age of ten when they both stumbled on a love for banking.
“When we were growing up, we did not have much money at all. So, we did the best we could with what we had. My brother and I would see bankers dressed in nice suits, looking prosperous, so we decided at an early age that we wanted to become bankers. It was as simple as that,” Gillespie said.
Another touch of something to impact how they saw life. As the two grew older their father decided to get them out of the city and moved them to a small town in Western Pennsylvania called Farrell Pennsylvania, approximately 75 miles outside of Pittsburgh. This change meant that the boys went from subway rides, a concrete jungle, and apartment living, to the first home that their family ever owned, with green grass, which they loved. The change in environment was drastic but welcomed because it gave them more quality time with their father in an easy-going community.
“We went from having no car and hearing constant sirens, to needing a car and hearing the sounds of the country quickly.” Gillespie continued, “My dad bought us a car, as we needed our own transportation, but it was really for him because he later became legally blind and needed my brother and I to drive him around too.”
Gillespie’s father never learned how to drive a car but worked as a chef in downtown Manhattan, which Gillespie admired his father’s work ethic. Gillespie said his dad wore a suit to work every day, changed into his chef uniform, and put his suit back on to take the subway home. Gillespie and his brother admired their dad for working so hard, with little financial reward. Living in Harlem, and Farrell, both had their advantages and drawbacks, but Gillespie said he would not change a thing. Harlem will always be in his blood.
“I loved living in the city, but I also loved the peace and calm of small-town living,” Gillespie said. Being touched by both places was shaping the men that Gillespie and his brother were starting to become.
While living in Farrell, they both were mentored by a local banker who took a liking to them and exposed them to the world of banking at an early age, growing up fast and becoming part of who the boys were.
By the time they got to college, their father was in his late sixties and slowing down. As Gillespie and his brother entered Youngtown State University, just across state lines, they were working hard to pay for school and to keep themselves clothed.
“After my father became legally blind, we commuted back and forth to school so we could stay close to him and take care of him and their Aunt Jean, who raised them,” Gillespie said.
They both got a great education while in school and even carved out enough time to start a rap group. Rhapsody was a group that consisted of three guys who met in college, had a love for hip hop, and formed a group. They became very well-known and even performed at the Apollo Theater in NYC several times.
Another touch by life for the boys was to turn their ability to mix beats into a full-blown show where they had fans and a huge following. But as rap began to change in the early ninety’s, it grew away from the dance beats and rhymes to a different sound, therefore they moved away from it, and to focus on finishing college. Gillespie returned his sight to his first love of banking and was blessed to get a job upon graduating from college into a banking management trainee program. Gillespie learned as a trainee to listen and learn.
As a banker, Gillespie went from having life touched him, to being able to touch other people’s lives.
“One of the best things about being a banker is that I get a chance to help other people. Banking touches everything. We get a chance to work with people from all walks of life, we get a chance to provide loans and funding to all types of businesses, and it really means the world to me to see people succeed,” Gillespie said.
Six years ago, Gillespie joined ERIEBANK as the Regional President for Ohio, and recently became the President of ERIEBANK, a community bank that operates in Ohio and Pennsylvania. ERIEBANK is a division of CNB Bank, which operates in four states. The mission of the bank is to make loans and to provide financial solutions to real people in their communities. This means that if you bank with ERIEBANK you will experience.
- No red tape and faster loan decisions
- You will work directly with bank decision-makers
- Your personal lender will work with you from beginning to end
- Where everyone is accessible to anyone, including the bank president
Gillespie reminds anyone he talks to about the need for them to have a real working relationship with their bank. And that means having a real working relationship with their banker.
Most people understand that they need to use a national Bank for some of their banking. So, if something happens while you are in Paris, your national bank addresses the problem in real-time. But Gillespie also underscores the need to be able to walk into a community bank, shake hands with someone who knows you personally, and will look at more than your FICO score.
“You are not just making a loan to a business, you are making a loan so that business can buy equipment, so that business can employ people, and pay people’s salaries. And those people can go home and take care of their families,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie drives the message that banking touches everything because if it is done right, it really does touch everything. It impacts communities and those who live and work in the community. His goal is to help as many companies as possible realize their mission to become Fortune five hundred organizations or build up the business to leave a legacy.
There is no question that life touched Gillespie in many special ways to make him the man he is. The great thing about him is the fact that he gives life back as much as it has offered him. A touching journey for sure. ●
