Busey Bank adds two executives to regional banking and wealth management teams

Willie Mayberry

Busey Bank recently bolstered its leadership team with the addition of two high-level executives to lead its regional banking and wealth management divisions.

Willie Mayberry takes on the role of Executive Vice President and President of Regional Banking, overseeing the bank’s client facing sales teams and relationships managers across the footprint.  This includes Commercial Banking, Wealth Management, Retail and Treasury Management.  Jeff Burgess joined Busey as Executive Vice President and President of Busey Wealth Management. Burgess is responsible for the oversight and execution of the daily operations, vision and strategy for the wealth management team.

“We’re incredibly excited to have both Jeff and Willie join the Busey family,” said Busey Bank President and CEO Robin Elliott. “Their experience and expertise in their respective fields will be tremendous assets to our organization and their leadership styles are a perfect cultural fit for Team Busey.”

Mayberry joins Busey Bank from PNC, where he served as Executive Vice President and Director of Strategy and Planning for the commercial bank. In that role he focused on strategies to enhance growth, profitability and innovation to meet client needs and expand the bank’s product offerings. Also, at PNC, Mayberry was the Market Manager for Georgia and Alabama for business banking where he led double digit growth over a span of seven years. At Chase, among numerous roles over 22 years, included serving as a Regional Executive managing the Midwest region and was the National Sales Executive for the Treasury Management division. He is an alum of Leadership Atlanta, one of the oldest and most revered leadership programs in the nation and was a student athlete at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting.

According to Mayberry, Busey’s culture, capacity for growth and innovation were factors in his decision-making process.

“We’re at an inflection point within the industry as we’ve seen continued constriction of the number of banks out there. There’s a clear delineation between the winners and losers. Those that have the capabilities to grow in scale are the banks that are demonstrating they can meet clients’ needs,” he said. “When you look at the growth capabilities Busey has, with its regional operating model and in technology and innovation through its fintech arm, FirsTech, it’s very strong and attractive.”

At Busey, his focus will be on delivering organic growth in conjunction with the organization’s executive and regional leaders while ensuring an acute focus is kept on well-capitalized banking with the inclusion of wealth management, commercial services and treasury management, the foundation of Busey’s regionalization model, which Mayberry described as “a competitive advantage versus peer banks Busey’s size.”

“Through the regionalization model, you’re not just focused on one piece of the business, it’s intended for everyone to work together for the good of the client, the community and the organization overall,” Mayberry said. “Through this model, Busey is able to ‘out-big the smalls and out-small the bigs,’ meaning we can deliver the customer experience of a smaller community bank, with all the efficiencies, products, technology and resources of the nation’s largest banks. We’re taking all of the parts that represent strength for Busey and bringing it together in a unique and dynamic way, to the benefit of our clients.”

Burgess, a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, most recently served as President of Commerce Brokerage Services, Inc. Previously, he was also Director of Business Development for the east region of Commerce Trust Company after serving as Group Vice President of Sales Operations for Fisher Investments in Woodside, Calif. In 2015, he was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s prestigious 40 Under 40 list and graduated from Leadership St. Louis, one of the most highly respected leadership development programs in the nation.

For Burgess, several aspects factored into his decision to join Busey. 

“It’s exciting to join an organization with the amazing culture and history—what’s been built over the past 150-plus years—at Busey,” he said. “Busey’s wealth division is a very established business with a strong foundation that’s been built over decades. What gets me excited is we can leverage that strong foundation, along with the developing regional operating model, to drive organic growth while enhancing the client experience.

“Also, Busey has an incredibly aligned, energetic and growth-minded executive team,” Burgess continued. “As I met them and was able to engage and learn more about them, it was apparent that it’s a team of people that have rallied behind the Busey mission and want to be a part of this journey. That was very magnetic to me as I went through the interview process, to the point that I wanted to be a part of that journey as well.”

The regional operating model was a driving factor in Burgess’ decision to join the Busey Team.

“We have amazing capabilities across all business lines, and through the regionalization model when we go to our customers, we’re bringing the entire bank with us,” he said. “We’re unified and collaborative in our efforts to further enhance our clients’ experiences through additional products, tools and resources while continuing to grow and scale the business. To be honest, when done right there’s not another bank our size, especially in the Midwest, that has successfully executed on a similar model.”

In addition to professional prowess, Burgess and Mayberry are each actively involved with various organizations and boards of directors in their communities, something which is encouraged at Busey and another draw for each of them, they said.