WILMINGTON – With the retirement of longtime Delaware Market President Nick Lambrow earlier this month, M&T Bank has turned to Mark Hutton, perhaps its most tenured local employee, to take over the helm.
Hutton, a Cecil County, Md., native who moved to Wilmington more than 20 years ago, was working at banks in Maryland when he was first recruited by M&T Bank in 2008 to open a small commercial banking office in the major financial market. At that time, Wilmington Trust was still M&T’s competitor, but less than two years later M&T would acquire the local banking giant.
“We got to know [Wilmington Trust] pretty well through the first couple years that I ran the office in Wilmington. Ultimately, I was asked to be a part of the team that was evaluating and then ultimately executing on the merger and integration of Wilmington Trust, which really helped me become very ingrained in the market,” he recalled in an interview with Delaware Business Times.
From that point forward, Hutton has risen through M&T Bank’s commercial banking operation to serve as executive vice president of commercial banking in Delaware, where he oversaw banking and lending for middle market companies, real estate investments, governments, health care entities and not-for-profit organizations.
With that responsibility, Hutton has seen the growth in Delaware’s economy over the last decade firsthand, helping businesses across the state to manage their money, access new capital and continue to grow.
“We continue to see small and medium-sized businesses as the engine of the global economy,” he said. “We’re really engaged and making sure that we can help them find success.”
Although Lambrow only publicly announced his retirement a few weeks before it became effective, Hutton said that he has been learning and preparing with his predecessor to take on a bigger role for several years now.
“I count Nick as a close friend and an advocate for my career, and also just a great leader who I’ve respected and admired for so long,” Hutton said. “But there was a process in front of me with lots of very qualified leaders in our market, so I’m pleased and proud to be asked to take on this role.”
With more than 40 brick-and-mortar branches, the headquarters of its institutional banking arm Wilmington Trust and a growing Tech Center in Wilmington and Data Center in Millsboro, M&T Bank remains as committed to Delaware as when it arrived 15 years ago, Hutton said.
“[Delaware] is absolutely a core part of who we are and who we want to be moving forward. And that’s why we see some of the opportunities to invest here,” he added. “It’s really exciting to be here in Delaware right now.”
Many of those new investments are coming on the technology side, as M&T Bank aims to create banking platforms that are responsive to the needs of its consumers.
“I do think there’s some opportunities moving forward. The state’s changing, the economy is changing, the market is changing – so it’s incumbent on us to change with it and to make sure we continue to show up in the right ways,” he said. “That might mean investing in data and technology in ways that we haven’t before to create better client experiences.”
Much like his predecessor, Hutton has also been involved in the local community, co-founding the Intern Delaware program that integrates new interns to the First State and serving on the boards of the Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and Delaware State University. He noted that community service is an important part of the mission of M&T Bank overall, with Delaware employees contributing 12,000 hours to not-for-profits and its foundation donating more than $2 million in the state last year.
“Community involvement really does define and differentiate how a community bank like M&T shows up in the market,” he said.
