Page 50 - BusinessWest February 17, 2025

Dan Moriarty
President and CEO, Monson Savings Bank
He’s Always Put the Emphasis on Team — and Teamwork
DBy George O’Brien [email protected]
an Moriarty will be the first to acknowl- edge that he goes heavy on the sports terms and comparisons between the ath- letic field and the workplace, especially when it comes to the power of teamwork.
Make that really heavy.
But it’s understandable, and for many reasons. Moriarty was a star athlete at Monson High
School and later at Providence College, excelling at soccer. And he remains an athlete; he’s competed in several marathons and half-Ironmans (including the one in this region), as well as a full Ironman, which involves a 2.4-mile open-water swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run (a full marathon). A few years back, he bicycled some
60 miles between Monson Savings Bank’s seven locations, a trek he called the ‘Tour de Branches.’
In the small-world department, he and Mike Rouette, executive vice president and chief operating officer at MSB, were teammates on the Monson High soccer team. In fact, they both scored goals in a 2-1 win over Monument Mountain in a 1984 game that propelled the team to the regional finals.
So, Moriarty certainly comes from a sports background.
And with that experience, he knows the full value of teamwork and understands that it’s more than a catchphrase managers will use to get employees to pull in the same direction.
Indeed, Moriarty stresses that, whether on the athletic field or in the workplace, individuals can excel and score goals (either figuratively or literally), but teams win games and accomplish great things together.
“Mike and I will sometimes maybe overuse the analogies from sports, but the best teams are
the ones that have the best teamwork, and not necessarily the best players,” he said, adding that this the mindset he works to instill from the top, while also acknowledging that he has some pretty good players.
In keeping with this mindset, when called to inform him that he had been named a Difference Maker for 2025, he said simply, “I’m honored, but I’d rather give it to the team here.”
It is this ability to promote teamwork, while fostering a philosophy of giving back and getting involved, that makes Moriarty worthy of this award.
“Dan exemplifies a culture of support and community giving,” said Dodie Carpentier, first vice
Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging DM32 FEBRUARY 17, 2025
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“Mike and I will sometimes maybe overuse the analogies from sports, but the best teams are the ones that have the best teamwork, and not necessarily the best players.”