Business View Magazine | May/June 2022

73 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 5 F I VE STAR BANK decentralized subsidiaries merged to form the Five Star Bank that exists today. Birmingham was named President & CEO of the bank in 2013, and since then has been diligently working to keep Five Star a step ahead of its competitors. He reports, “I’ve been working closely with our board and our executive management team, and those that work with and for them, to document a well-articulated strategy that serves as a roadmap for how we’re trying to drive the bank forward and achieve the rewards of working together, grounded in a strategic plan. It’s been a lot of fun, and so far, we’ve been making a lot of really meaningful progress.” Five Star Bank offers a full range of commercial and consumer banking services, as well as insurance services and customized investment management, investment consulting, and retirement plan services for individuals, businesses, and institutions. They have more than $5 billion in assets and operate 48 branches spanning 14 New York counties and 10,000 square miles. More than 600 employees work hard to service locations that include Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, and Jamestown. In each branch, they have made themselves a valuable asset to the community, and they have plans to continue to do that for even more sites in the future. “Every place we turn is an opportunity for growth,” Birmingham notes. “We have positioned the bank to take advantage of a very strong connection to the markets where we grew up, and in some cases have been in for over 200 years. These are smaller towns and villages with one traffic light, where our bank is clearly a key partner in the stabilization of the community and the progress that is made in that community. We take great pride in that.” Even over the course of the pandemic, Five Star was able to continue its growth, adding two more branches in Buffalo in a time when many banks were struggling to keep up or having to close down branches. “That demonstrates a Seneca Street Branch significant commitment to Buffalo, where we can assure ourselves and those communities that we are taking care of every economic spectrum that exists in the marketplace,” Birmingham says. Five Star’s expansion doesn’t stop in New York. The financial institution recently announced the addition of a team in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. According to Birmingham, “This was a team that had been working in a community bank that was sold to a much larger consolidator. This team believes in themselves and they believe in the role that a community bank can play with their commercial customers. We embraced the opportunity to welcome them to Five Star and to support their effort to help us build a viable commercial program in the Baltimore-Washington area.” Five Star’s ability to keep up with the latest in banking technology has helped facilitate this partnership, since there won’t be a