Finance Fund recently welcomed Moniqua Spencer to the position of Chief Program Officer. Moniqua brings with her 13 years of experience in the banking sector. In an effort to learn a little more about the role she’ll be playing within our team, we recently sat down and did a little Q&A where Moniqua talked about her goals and visions for her new position.
After 18 years in the private sector, and particularly in banking, what was the motivation for switching to the non-profit side of the world?
Switching from the private to the non-profit sector wasn’t the largest consideration. It was more about taking what I already knew about finance and commercial development, and coupling it with my passions. When I was at the Huntington National Bank we had an internal initiative called Huntington Hometown Partnership. It was the bank’s plan to meet a $250MM commitment in residential loans, community development, and small business lending, as a part of Mayor Michael Coleman’s 21st Century City Initiative. I was the point person in the small business lending area. Part of our goal was to make our lending more prudent in low-to-moderate income areas. We realized that when lending in re-developed or economically depressed areas, customers don’t necessarily fit in the established underwriting “box.” We worked to adjust guidelines and find partners like Finance Fund.
In essence, my biggest switch will be staying mission focused and less profit driven. Although, I will review projects with a business mind set because at the end of the day, it’s of no benefit to Finance Fund and the community at large if we lose money.
What makes you most anxious about taking this new direction in your career?
The stability of non-profit funding sources – and the future comfort level of those sources.
Additionally, after being with an organization for 13 years, you are a bit on cruise control when it comes to knowing the internal systems. Now, I’m starting over again from learning the voicemail system to new products and services. I am in the process of learning how to be focused on our bottom line, while not making decisions that will compromise our mission.
The banking industry has obviously gone through many changes in the last few years. What was the hardest loss you saw during that time? What was the greatest lesson you were granted?
The hardest lesson learned is making sure that you stay in your own back yard (rather than follow customers out of market where you don’t have a presence). There are some times when you want to say yes – that you have to say no. I also learned a great lesson on how to do business: the way you do it in the bad times is how you need to do it in the good times.
Finance Fund has a unique position within the State of Ohio. Given what you’ve learned about it in your few short weeks on the job, what’s your greatest hope for where it will head in the next 10 years?
We are a sideline partner right now. We want to be on the field playing with everyone else. This means being more proactive in the effort to re-invigorate historically economically depressed areas – and being very “loud” about how we can help you. We miss opportunities to impact communities every day by not being on the field. Bankers need to know that we are here and we can help diffuse exposures and give creativity to a project.
Lastly, as someone that will have the distinct opportunity to report to Jim Klein, how will you “herd his cats” of ideas?
Jim reminds me of a lot of small business owners I worked with over the years. I’m going to take his vision, and work hard to actualize it – with him and for him. I’m a thorough researcher – I am likely to pick up an idea that he threw out and check it out. No idea is a solution until we’ve proven it to be or not.
I have a checklist to make sure I know if I should propel a project along the line. What is the project, planning stages; I will communicate to the potential client what I need from them to be able to help them.
I will say no quickly so that I won’t string out any potential project for months and months. And when I say no, it will always be with a path to get to “yes” or clear reasons why it couldn’t be done.
Tags: Finance Fund
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