MIBA recently sat down with Joe Stewart to get to know him better. Joe is a MIBA board member and President and CEO of Bank Star. Joe Stewart and his wife, Sheila, have been married for 24 years. They have two children, son J.C. (21) and daughter Avery (18).
Joe has many hobbies, including boating, fishing, flying, skiing, watching sports, cycling, riding motorcycles, and attending live music and sporting events, to name a few. We want to thank him for his time and hope you enjoy getting to know him as much as we did.
Joe Stewart is the President and CEO of Bank Star. He has worked in every capacity in a community bank over the years — from a teller to the CEO. The positions and responsibilities he enjoys the most are the ones with the most direct contact with customers and the community.
He did not intend to be a banker. Joe attended his first two years at Mizzou and then took a summer job that lasted a year and a half in credit and collections. This experience gave him a sense of accomplishment as he worked with customers in good times and bad. “I am confident that if you start your career in collections that it will make you a better lender.” Joe reflected.
Following that year and a half hiatus from school, he moved back to St. Louis. He attended St. Louis University for three semesters before finishing up a year later at The University of Missouri St. Louis with a BSBA in Finance Degree. In addition to his undergrad degree, he also completed the Missouri School of Banking, the Madison Graduate School of Banking, and the Masters of Banking program, which was a partnership with LSU and Sheshunoff.
Joe also received the Governance Fellow designation from the NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) and holds a real estate license from the Missouri Real Estate Commission. He is a licensed pilot and has served on the Sunset Hills Board of Alderman.
Being in the banking industry for 30 years has been a great experience. He remembers when he was one the youngest in the room at conferences and conventions, he joked that is not the case anymore.
Joe is a second-generation banker. His father, Joseph C. Stewart Jr., and his group of investors acquired their first bank in Illinois in 1976 and then acquired several banks in Missouri from 1981-1990.
Looking back, he said that the most rewarding part of his career was when he, and his group of investors, bought out his father and many of the founding shareholders in 2017. It was a challenging process whereby we sold three of the four subsidiary banks, then had a capital raise and conducted a tender offer almost concurrently. This left us with our new shareholder group and a $60MM bank in Pacific called Bank Star. Since then, we have acquired the Bank of Hillsboro in 2018 and opened our newest branch in Sunset Hills in 2021, pushing our new organization over $180MM.
Joe and his wife have numerous charities that are close to their heart. Their primary focus is to support organizations that benefit children, including the Foundation for Children with Cancer, Make a Wish and The Ronald McDonald House.
When asked about the challenges facing the banking industry, he stated that “Growth is always a challenge. Getting to critical mass to achieve economies of scale is necessary for all banks.” He went on to say, “Loan and customer acquisition will be the way that all banks will compete. This will require not only a strong credit culture in the current economic environment but will require finding ways to produce this business more efficiently or profitably through streamlined processes and the use of technology.”
As a MIBA board member, Joe talked about the benefits that come with membership, and he said that “First and foremost the advocacy and lobbying efforts of the MIBA to protect and benefit our industry, followed by educational opportunities and of course networking with fellow bankers.”
One of the greatest joys of his career was being elected by his fellow bankers in Missouri to represent them on the Board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. Joe was elected three times and had the privilege of serving on the FHLB board for 10 years, serving as Vice-Chair of the Risk Committee, and was involved in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle’s merger into the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines.
Joe passed on three pieces of advice to those coming up in the industry:
- You can’t learn the tricks of the trade until you first learn the trade.
- Get involved in your community. Network, Network, Network.
- Do your current assigned duty and responsibility well, and you will be given greater duties and responsibilities.
In conclusion, he said, “I have had an amazing career in an industry that I love. Any success that I have achieved could not have happened without the support of my wife, my family and of course the talented team at Bank Star that I have the great pleasure of working with on a daily basis.”
