Page 6 - BusinessWest 2024 Difference Makers

Matt Bannister
Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, PeoplesBank
He Goes Well Beyond the Job of ‘Playing Santa Claus’
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
att Bannister likes to say that he has “one of the best jobs at the bank,” although some might consider it the worst.
His title is senior vice president of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility, a position that comes with many responsibilities, including
a rather large role in determining and then implementing PeoplesBank’s philanthropic strategy, duties he described this way: “I get to play Santa Claus.”
Indeed, he’s part of the team that essentially determined how the bank apportioned $2.3 million in giving in 2022 and another $1.6 million in 2023, with donations averaging roughly $3,000 presented to more than 500 nonprofits and causes meeting some of the region’s most critical needs, such as food insecurity, housing, economic development, and literacy.
More on all this later, because this work is not why Bannister has been named a Difference Maker for 2024. OK, it’s a small part of the reason why.
The much bigger reason is the manner in which he has gone well beyond playing Santa Claus and well beyond helping decide to whom the bank will write checks —
rather, he’s become closely involved with helping to meet some of those needs listed above.
Since joining the bank in 2015, he has served as a board member for agencies including Link to Libraries, EforAll Pioneer Valley, the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, the Springfield 9/11 Memorial fundraising committee, the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, Hilltown Community Health Center;
the American Red Cross, and Revitalize Community Development Corp. (CDC), where he is current co-chair.
Involvement with the health-related agencies on that list continues a pattern to focus his time, energy, and talent on matters related to health and well-being (and he puts Revitalize CDC squarely in that category, as we’ll see).
Before coming to PeoplesBank, Bannister was executive vice president of Corporate Communications and Brand Content for the American Heart Assoc./American Stroke Assoc., and before that, he was vice president and
“You can say that he manages the pocketbook and he helps us disperse funds in the right ways, but when you see that expense report and you see that mileage — that’s not giving out money as much as it is participating and being part o”f the community.
A6 2024
BusinessWest
group account director at Arnold Worldwide, working on integrated marketing campaigns with a focus on anti- tobacco efforts for clients including the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health, the FDA, and
the American Legacy
Foundation.
PeoplesBank
Bannister
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Continued on page A8