Tag Archives: Meet Your Banker

Meet Your Banker: Jessica Calder

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Today we continue our “Meet Your Banker” series by talking with Jessica Calder. Jessica is the Branch Manager of our Pickaway County Banking Center in Circleville.

Jessica Calder

Jessica Calder is the Branch Manager of the Pickaway County Banking Center in Circleville.

Jessica has worked in banking for over fourteen years. She has tried another line of work and knows that it’s just not for her. “I took a break from banking for a while. During part of that time I worked in another kind of office and hated it,” she explained. “I love what I do now because it gives me a chance to work with people, to get to know them. Our customers come to know us and to trust us when they have a problem or a question and I love being that person they turn to. Customers become friends and many become our family.”

She started her banking career as a teller for one of the corporate banks in Circleville. She went on to be a teller supervisor for two other big banks before finding her way to VCNB where she has been Branch Manager for Circleville’s Pickaway County Banking Center for about two and a half years.

“This place actually cares about the customers, about employees and their families and it shows. It’s possible to have work-life balance here and I’m grateful for that opportunity,” she explained. “Plus they give us the time and the money to give back to our communities!”

Jessica knows a thing or two about giving back to the community. The Circleville High School graduate is the Treasurer for the Pickaway County Chamber of Commerce and she coaches biddy league volleyball every August through October. She has volunteered as the fifth and sixth grade volleyball coach for four seasons. She had fourteen girls last season and, while she says her fall schedule is hectic and tiring, she feels like she’s doing some good. “It’s the greatest thing in the world to coach and to give back,” she exclaimed. “And when they run up to you off season and ask if you’re coming back next year, you know you did something right!”

She and her husband have been together for twelve years and have four children – their son is serving in Afghanistan, one daughter is in college and their other two daughters are in high school.

Meet Your Banker: Matthew Giroux

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Today we continue our “Meet Your Banker” series by talking with Matthew Giroux. Matthew is the Branch Manager at our Ross County Banking Center on Western Avenue in Chillicothe.

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Matthew Giroux is the Branch Manager of our Ross County Banking Center on Western Avenue.

Ask Matthew to talk about his role as a community banker and he first mentions his experience working for a big bank. “This is so much more rewarding than corporate banking which is very black and white. In corporate banking, there’s no opportunity to get to know your customers or to help someone who you’ve had to tell they can’t have what they want but that there may be another solution,” he said. “It’s like night and day when you go to work for a bank that actually wants to work with customers.”

While he’s relatively new to VCNB, Matthew has close to sixteen years of experience in banking and a degree in Finance from Ohio State University. The Chicago native’s father attended OSU  and so Matthew said he always knew that’s where he wanted to study.

With sixteen years in banking around central Ohio he said that he especially likes working with business customers and small business start-ups. “New businesses are exciting. They’re usually starting a business with a purpose and they’re doing it because they’re passionate about something .  . . they’re doing it because they want to, not because they have to.”

However, he pointed out that many small business customers don’t know where to go for an EIN or to register their name. “They don’t know where to start but it’s something we deal with every day so it’s easy for us. It’s a lot of fun to guide customers to where they need to be,” he said.

Matthew and his wife Beth will celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary in May. They have a four-year old son.

In his free time, he is an avid OSU fan and is proud to be a 23 season ticket holder. He is also the Treasurer of the Ohio State Alumni Club of Ross County, belongs to the Chillicothe Rotary, and helps with concessions for the Zane Trace Athletic Boosters. He also represents the bank at the quarterly Ross Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce New Member Breakfast that the bank sponsors.

Until the pandemic caused disruption to daily life, Matthew was volunteering with the United Way, doing taxes for people through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program which provides free tax preparation services to low to moderate income tax payers in the community. “I was having a lot of fun doing taxes for people a few nights a week and some Saturdays,” he said. He laughed when teased for calling tax time fun. “It IS a lot of fun. You get to meet a lot of people and help others. Plus, I got to expand my own knowledge so I think the program is great,” he said.

“The pandemic has complicated the way we do some things but we are still here helping customers. I’m just a phone call away and we can accomplish everything a customer needs.”