Chief Operating Officer, Meridian Trust Bank · Ex-Matson terminal operations · Industrial engineer
Portland · Meridian Trust Bank · 911+ connections
I ran container terminals for twelve years before I ran a bank's operations, and I have come to believe they are the same job: move something from the person who has it to the person who needs it, with nothing waiting and nothing wasted.
In 2021 we mapped every step between a customer asking to open an account and the account being usable. There were forty-one hand-offs. There are now nine, and the account is usable within the hour. The forty-one-step diagram is framed outside my office so nobody forgets how it used to be.
If your bank makes you wait, it is not because waiting is necessary. It is because nobody drew the diagram.
Five years of 'Same Day' account opening this week. 2021: four days, forty-one hand-offs. Today: median 38 minutes, nine steps. The diagram outside my office still has all forty-one boxes on it. I want every new hire to see where we started.
Fixed something today that bothered me for a year: branch staff were walking 140 feet to the printer for cashier's checks. Moved the printer. Saved roughly 900 hours a year across three branches. The best operational improvements cost nothing and embarrass you slightly.
What container shipping taught me about banking: a ship that leaves ten minutes late costs more than a ship that leaves ten minutes early ever saves. Every queue in a branch is a ship leaving late. Measure the queues.
Branches, operations, payments, vendor management and the customer-experience programme across three branches and 410 staff.
Led the 'Same Day' account-opening initiative (4 days → under 1 hour) and the 2019 payments-platform upgrade.
Ran terminal operations at the Port of Oakland: 1,100 staff, 600,000 containers a year.
Scheduling, yard planning and crane productivity programmes in Oakland and Honolulu.
M.B.A., University of California, Berkeley (Haas), 2009
B.S. Industrial Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2001
The forty-one-box diagram is the most-photographed object in the building. Including the vault.
Nine steps. At Cascade we got container intake from 23 to 7 and I thought that was good. You win.