If there’s anything Investar Bank President and CEO John D’Angelo has learned over the years, it’s that patience pays off.
As a young professional in the financial services industry, D’Angelo was more of a risk-taker, quicker to jump into new things without giving much thought to the potential consequences of his actions. But this impatience also spawned a string of professional setbacks.
“I was speeding through life,” D’Angelo recalls. “The chief credit officer at Hibernia told me, ‘You need to get some more gray hair,’ or more experience. At the time, I didn’t quite get that, but today, I completely understand.”
Since D’Angelo opened Investar in June 2006, the bank has grown from five employees operating out of a Perkins Road trailer to a nationally chartered, Coursey Boulevard-headquartered bank that employs nearly 350 people spread across 29 branch locations in three states. Once it completes pending acquisitions later this year, Investar will have total assets of some $2.6 billion.
That evolution didn’t happen overnight. Rather, says D’Angelo, overseeing that kind of growth requires patience in spades, mixed with an analytical approach to doing business.
Though neither came naturally to the gregarious New Orleans native, he’s mastered both skills as his leadership role with the bank has transformed from primarily handling day-to-day matters to now setting the bank’s strategic planning and acting as a liaison between the bank and the local community. Because of this, D’Angelo credits Investar’s success to his 350-person team and the culture its workforce has cemented over the years.
Read the full story about D’Angelo’s journey from the latest edition of Business Report, which features this year’s Business Awards and Hall of Fame members. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
