Capital City Bank is getting its first woman president after 130 years. On July first Beth Corum will take the helm.
Corum says she has been on a different path than some other members of the Capital City Bank leadership team: Bill Smith, who's now Capital City Bank Group Chairman and CEO; and Tom Barron. He's been appointed president of Capital City Bank Group and chairs the Capital City Bank board of directors.
"I grew up very differently in the business than Tom or Bill did. They both grew up on the production side as relationship bankers with strong credit backgrounds. I accidentally found banking and my love for the profession kind of started at a previous employer when I was with the Florida Bankers Association."
Which gave Corum a launching point at Capital City Bank.
"When I came to Capital City in 2006, I came as the chief people officer. So managing all of human resources, training, employee development, etc."
And from there, she says, almost everything else except for financial accounting and credit administration. Winding up most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
"Probably more of an operational excellence and I'd like to think innovation. So I think that's where I'll be best suited to influence that area of our organization."
In a time when person-to-person contact is becoming ever more rare in banking, Corum says her goal is to make sure that personal service is always at the heart of every customer interaction.
"Wanting to be sure that the experience that a client had was the same, regardless of whether it was an electronic transaction, a call center transaction, or in-office transaction."
As for the future, Corum wants to build on what she considers the bank's very best qualities.
"We spend a lot of time on culture. That'll continue to be a heavy focus for us as an institution. And I think that the culture we've created here for the last 130 years can be illustrated if you look at our tenure (and) if you look at what I call the boomerang effect; the people who leave and then come back."
Which Beth Corum, the soon-to-be president of Capital City Bank, says makes up a considerable number of the bank's employees.
