Sitting in the Winner's Circle
Julian Beard re-enters the Lexington banking scene with an emphasis on service

Julian Beard's propensity toward banking, a culture he learned over his boyhood dinner table, is inherent. In 1923, his father launched a 38-year banking career, during which he became executive vice president of a progenitor of Lexington's First Security National Bank. Years later, Beard held the same office.

During Beard's 31-year tenure at First Security, the Lexington native served not only as executive vice president but also as president of First Security Financial Services Corporation and vice president of First Security Corporation of Kentucky. During that time, he helped found QUEST (a statewide ATM network that preceded the MAC network in Kentucky) and in 1974 led the team that employed the city's first ATM's at First Security National.

Following his retirement in 1988, Beard watched his institution – then Lexington's largest bank – expand even further through mergers, first with Bank One (the former Citizens Union entity), then with Liberty Bank (previously Bank of Lexington). Yet bigger was not translating into better – each increment of growth seem to chip away at the stellar customer service in which the bank once had prided itself. As the banking industry continued its expansion march, Beard began to perceive a need for a more personal, service-based banking alternative for the general public and the small business community.

However, his role as president and chief operating officer of B.S.C., Inc. (a community bank data processing and operations management company) was keeping him plenty busy. The firm had seen its financial institution client base grow from three to 22 over the course of seven years.

But the seed was planted. In January of last year, Beard decided that the time was right to open a customer service-oriented bank and the endeavor to breathe life back into the First Security name began.

Two months later Beard left his B.S.C. job to begin working out of a tiny makeshift office at the Wellington Arms with fellow bankers James R. Burkholder and Greg Kessinger to bring the idea to fruition.

From those three, the number of enthusiastic organizers eventually grew to 30. Stoll, Keenon & Park was hired as legal representation, and Eskew & Gresham as accountants. Incorporation and acquiring a convenient downtown location followed. In late spring, an application to form the new First Security was filed in Frankfort.

Fund-raising to accumulate opening capital was accomplished in three phases: 1) identifying organizers, or sophisticated investors of at least $100,000; 2) generating a prospectus to be sent to the general public; and 3) hiring J.C. Bradford, an investment brokerage, to raise the final $3 million needed to reach the bank's $10 million goal (a goal that was attained in only two weeks).

By November 10, FDIC insurance and the bank's charter were in order, and on November 17, 1997, the new First Security opened for business at 400 East Main with Julian Beard as chairman, president and CEO.

To augment the new institution's main site, First Security opened a Southland Drive location that was once an $80 million branch bank property occupied by the original First Security (and later operated by Bank One).

Many of the customers who have found their way into the new bank come seeking refuge from the merger mania that has spread throughout the industry.

"When a person has a problem, they like to be able to sit down at a desk across from [an employee] who will talk to them ... and not to one who then must report to a higher-up or to a service center in another state," Beard notes.

First Security's 24 employees boast a total of 440 years of banking experience and the staff strives to answer incoming calls by the third ring. In addition, Beard says, the bank has implemented a "sundown rule" – even if a problem can't be resolved by 5:30, the customer will get a call back with a progress report.

"When you satisfy the customer, they will take care of you," says Beard. "As long as you're fair with them, you'll get your shareholder value and you'll get job satisfaction and all the things that big banks claim they want. But they do it in reverse. They tell the customer that they're satisfied. The customer should make that choice."

And enough clients are choosing First Security that the bank's assets have tripled from $10 million upon opening mid-November to $30 million just six months later.

Everyone who drives into Lexington's downtown center of commerce via East Main passes not only First Security, but also Thoroughbred Park, replete with its six bronze racehorses thundering down the stretch toward the finish line. But where, you might ask, is the winner's circle? just step into Beard's office and look out the window. You'll see those runners charging right toward one happy man who's right in the middle of it!

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.

Back to August Issue

Back to Entrepreneur Index

Copyright 1996-98, by Kentucky Business Online, LLC.  All rights reserved.

Editorial content is copyright 1998, Lane Communications Group
All editorial materials is fully protected and must not be reproduced in any manner without prior permission. 

Buzzword and the Buzzword balloon are registered trademarks of Buzzword, Inc.  The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.