Meet The Bankers:
Thomas Sullivan

My name is Tom Sullivan. I am a Senior Vice President in the Middle Market Lending Group.

Describe how you helped a client grow their business:

In my career, I've come across a lot of business banking clients that were growing and on the cusp of becoming more of a middle-market type of business. We've been able to help them with it in and a lot of different ways, whether it's structured financing, structuring a line of credit that makes sense for that company; maybe doing it at a borrowing base instead of a clean up when there is no seasonality to the company.

What qualities should a business owner look for in a banker?

Experience is key- you get a lot of experience out there, but you need someone that's reasonable. I think someone who is a problem solver versus a person who just looks at a situation and decides no, we’ll pass on this, you know, a problem solver can say well the way it's structured, it’s not going to work, but we can make it work by doing it a little bit differently. So you need someone who has a little bit of creativity and reasonableness.

How does banking local help grow our communities?

Community Banks are investing back into the communities versus a lot of these money center banks that take money in from one place and let it out somewhere else. We're all on Long Island from Manhattan to Montauk basically; we support the local civic organizations in our communities. We live in these communities and the decisions of the Bank are made from people that are residing and grew up in these communities. A Community Bank has a vested interest in the well-being of the community it serves.

What is a fun fact about yourself?

I am an amateur blacksmith. I make a lot of blacksmithing tools like tongs. I made other tools like a rake, but yeah, I just tinker around with blacksmithing. I have a propane forge- that’s a fun fact about me.