In a state where “knowing a guy” to deal with almost any situation is a pride-inducing meme, relationships matter.
Beacon Bank Rhode Island market President William C. Tsonos has built a sterling, 30-plus year banking career in his home state never forgetting that.
“What’s kept me here are really the relationships,” he told PBN in this week’s cover story. “Rhode Island is a small state – people know each other, and those connections matter. That’s always been important to me.”
Relationships matter in banking and the broader business community because they build trust and stability through economic downturns and political turmoil.
So, it was not surprising when Gov. Daniel J. McKee tapped Mr. Tsonos to chair the quasi-public R.I. Life Science Hub, days after Mark Turco abruptly resigned as CEO in March after just over a year.
The $45 million hub is still searching for sustained leadership three years after its creation to help grow the state’s life science sector. The search for a permanent CEO is ongoing.
But the new board chairman, who also serves on the R.I. Commerce Corp. board, is setting the leadership standard with a style rooted in discipline, stability and relationship-building.
“The Life Science Hub needed stability,” he said, when asked about what led to his selection by the governor.
Mr. Tsonos brings that, along with a vision of what it might become and a banker’s discipline to see it through.
“I’d like to look back 10 years from now and think $45 million was well spent,” he said, “and maybe we should have spent more.”