Athena
In early 2019, Beth Daniels, CEO of Athena Bancorp (Athena or Athena Bank), reviewed the five-year plan that she had created with her team. When she founded Athena Bancorp in 2016, people had told her she was crazy. Daniels recalled, “Everyone said banking is a mature, overregulated industry that would go the way of the dinosaurs.” However, she was passionate about community banking and about the role that community banks could play in revitalizing the locations where they did business. She also believed there was a segment of the population that was ill-served by the U.S. financial system. Daniels wanted to help these individuals—while building a growing and profitable business. Now, Athena Bank had five branches and $1.8 billion in assets. Her five-year plan called for Athena to grow to 15 branches, with loans and deposits increasing threefold over the next five years. However, Paul James, Athena’s chief human resources officer (CHRO), was concerned that Athena was having difficulty ...