Newtown Savings Bank Is Poised For A Change At The Top

By John Voket

In just a few more weeks, John Trentacosta, who will by then be president and CEO of Newtown Savings Bank, may catch himself starting to shout out an idea or ask a question of the guy who used to sit across from his office.

Indeed, for more than five years, retiring CEO John Martocci has sat across from Mr Trentacosta, who served as a ready confidant, sounding board, mentor, and friend. But on January 1, Mr Trentacosta will take the helm of Newtown’s original community bank.

While the top management structure will immediately upgrade its ranks from seven to eight —and jettisoning the chief operating officer position which Mr Trentacosta has carried since 2003 — the transition itself has been designed to be glacierlike, slow and steady.

Everyone from its most fledgling employees to the bank’s officers and corporators have been kept in the loop throughout the more than yearlong process, which has been very important, considering the comings and goings among executives at many of America’s larger financial institutions in recent months.

And from the public’s perspective, bank officials believe the transition will cause nary a ripple.

“If you had told me two years ago this is how John M was going to do it — take this long, I would have said that’s too long,” Mr Trentacosta said. “But I have to take a lesson from that one. It’s turned out so great because it has been so nondisruptive to the bank.”

Similarities Outweigh Differences

Mr Trentacosta admits, however, that the manner in which the two execs got along was a key ingredient to this successful transition of power.

“You have to have two people who get along well, who like each other, who consider themselves friends, which we do,” he said. “You don’t always agree and you have to be able to differentiate constructively. And we do that in private. It’s not that often, but when it happens, we are honest with each other.”

According to Mr Trentacosta, in recent years the two Johns in the front office have worked symbiotically. And while Mr Martocci recently told The Bee he regards his COO as a decisive and talented financial professional, as well as a friend, Mr Trentacosta admitted he would often sit back and marvel at his CEO’s people skills.

“We have a lot of similarities, and our view about business — it’s almost scary sometimes,” Mr Trentacosta said. “We’re both accountants, both CPAs, we were both auditors, both kind of inquisitive and hand’s on.

“But although we are both of an Italian background, he tends not to get as excited as I typically would,” Mr Trentacosta continued. “I came out of a background where I had to be hard charging, focused, and driven. John’s more of a laid-back guy...doesn’t get excited too often. So I’ve tried to meld some of that to my style; a personal trait of his I try to emulate.”

Mr Martocci will continue to be a presence, tending to any board committee as an ex-officio member and continuing to serve as chairman of the bank’s board of directors.

“He won’t have an office at the bank, he’s not going to be running the bank on a day-to-day basis, but I think he will continue to act as my mentor and my confidant,” Mr Trentacosta said.

Mr Trentacosta is taking over the lead role at Newtown Savings Bank at a time when he and his counterparts at many other community banks can sit back relatively secure in a realm of institutions that is otherwise in turmoil. He predicts there will be a number of consolidations, an environment where “the survival of the fittest,” rules.

“In many respects, there is less competition. This whole crisis has actually helped our business,” Mr Trentacosta said. “It’s driving a lot of people back to us who are saying ‘I don’t know why I didn’t come to you in the first place. You’ve been here so long.’ I’m kind of optimistic from the competition standpoint.”

Community Service Rules

Mr Trentacosta said he not only plans to continue Newtown Saving’s Bank’s corporate support of hundreds of community causes here and in every town that has an NSB branch, but he hopes to by example, inspire a 100 percent rate of volunteerism from among his employees.

As an active member of the Newtown Rotary Club, he has led several fundraising activities, including the Newtown Rotary Golf Tournament. He was also a Paul Harris Award recipient, one of the highest awards for his outstanding service to the club. He serves on the Cyrenius Booth Library Board of Directors, and the board of the Bankers Bank Northeast.

In addition, Mr Trentacosta served on the executive committee of the Newtown Tercentennial Commission, and as the committee’s treasurer. He is on the board and executive committee at St Joseph’s Manor; the board of directors and chairman of finance at Race Brook Country Club; as well as trustee and finance committee chairman at Laurelton Hall Academy.

He is also president of the Connecticut Bank Administration Institute, and director of Habitat For Humanity of Greater New Haven.

“I know everybody can’t join Rotary or the Lions Club, but there are different ways they can get involved in their community,” Mr Trentacosta said. “And when people walk in the door, our new hires, we tell them right up front that there is an expectation there. They have to think about that right up front.

“Some people may say that it’s good for the business, but I think it’s just the right thing to do.”