Andrew Samuel, chairman and CEO of LINKBANCORP, inc., talks community banking and good movies

Listen to this article

LINKBANCORP has “a mission to positively impact lives through community banking.” How do you accomplish this?

When we started the company five years ago, we didn’t just want to be another community bank that makes money; there had to be a bigger purpose than that, and we felt as we thought through it, we wanted to have a positive impact on our community. Impacting people’s lives was really about making a difference and it starts with our employees. We want to have a fun-loving environment where people can grow and be challenged and be impacted positively. If we do that, they’re going to bring that energy to their customers, and if we can help our customers be financially successful I think there’s more resources and more employment opportunities they create in our communities. And if our investors are happy, they can give back to our communities.

There are three guiding principles that help us achieve that goal. One is, from day one we set up the LINK Foundation, where a certain percentage of our profits go into the foundation and then the foundation – which is run by seven independent trustees – decides where the monies go in the community. To date, we have contributed $750,000 in five short years to the foundation. The whole concept was, as the bank grows and is more profitable, it will continue to fund the foundation, and this could go on forever. The idea was how to give back to our communities well beyond our lifetime, and so by creating a profitable bank that’s a public entity, we’re able to commit to making sure there’s dollars being poured into our communities, because we firmly believe any vibrant community has a strong non-profit community.

It’s not just money, but also for example, every employee in the company gets three volunteer days where they can only use that to volunteer at a non-profit in terms of their time and talents. The second pillar that was critical for us was really to make a difference in community banking. If you look at our nation, it was built upon the backs of small businesses, and these small businesses are the cornerstone of our economy. When they need capital, they go to their community bank. We wanted to make sure we built a community bank here in our market but that it was so successful we could share that with community banks across the nation and therefore have vibrant community banks, which means a vibrant source of capital for small businesses. The third, which is the one I really get excited about, is how to develop the next generation of values-based leaders. Our team is strong believers in the values of honesty and integrity, doing the right thing, and so we wanted to make sure we poured those values into the next generation of leaders.

I’m 61 and I can’t  do this forever, but what I can do is help develop the next generation of leaders who have a passion for the community, who want to do the right thing, who want to impact people, who at the end of the day value being a positive influence.

What did bringing in Partners Bancorp mean for LINKBANK?

That means a lot for us; now we are a company with 315 employees, we serve communities in five states – New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia – and we’ve gotten larger. Now we’re able to take our mission of positively impacting lives and the three pillars to a larger geographic area and impact those communities, and that’s exciting for us. With this scale also comes more efficiencies and the ability to serve more customers, the ability to attract more investors, because now our market cap is approximately $300 million, so it gives us a lot more resources and heft, and really at the end of the day support our mission in a much larger geographic footprint.

You’ve spent your career here in the midstate; what is it about this market that keeps you here?

This part of the country is wonderful. It’s all community, it’s relationships. I went to school here locally, I’m a graduate of Messiah University. I’ve always lived in the small town of Dillsburg, I have five daughters who all went to school there. I have 16 grandchildren and most of them are here. I love the market. There’s a sense of strong community here. What’s nice is you can build long term relationships here. In our market, people come, they want to put down roots, they want to raise their families, they want to impact their community. I’ve been fortunate I’ve been able to stay in this area and build community banks over the last 40 years.

What is the last good movie you saw? 

The last good movie I saw – and I had a lot of fun with it – was the new Trolls movie. I loved it and I love the message in that movie but the most important thing is I got to see it with my 16 grandchildren, such a wonderful experience.

Freelance writer Jennifer Botchie-Deinlein

About Andrew Samuel

Andrew Samuel, 61,has been chairman and chief executive officer of LINKBANK since it was founded in 2018. He has made a career in midstate banking, most recently serving as president of Susquehanna Bancshares.

Samuel is a graduate of Messiah University with a degree in accounting and also did graduate studies with the University of Delaware banking school.

He and his wife of 40 years live in Carroll Township. They have five daughters and 16 grandchildren.