Eugene Banks: Beyond the bottom line.

• Author: Frey, Shellie M.
• Position: People - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

He's a man of balance. Though Eugene Banks plays a high-powered role as Merrill Lynch's managing director over Utah and Wyoming, he says that work isn't always the bottom line. "It's important to keep balance in your life," he says, detailing the multi-faceted events of his day that include attending his daughter's high school tennis match, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon, conducting meetings at various branch offices, participating in church obligations and oh, squeezing in a few minutes to celebrate his own birthday.

It's all in a day's work for Banks who also manages to consume an average of 40 books a year, maintain a daily workout, spend time with his family of 10, and keep up on his karate. "Everybody has 24 hours, hut it's how you utilize that time to a greater extent [that matters]," he says, explaining his long-term affinity for the philosophies of Hyrum Smith, Stephen R. Covey and even turbo test scanner Evelyn Wood (speed reading dynamics).

Perhaps it's Banks' time mastery and life equilibrium that has helped him become such an effective manager for one of the world's leading financial institutions that boasts global client assets of $1.6 trillion (despite the recent downturn nationally) as well as being the largest domestic bank in Utah. Since he began leading the Utah complex more than a decade ago, Banks says that financial productivity on individual accounts regionally has also increased about 340 percent.

Still, perhaps it's Banks' way with people that has contributed to such success. A Merrill Lynch veteran since 1972, Banks is currently responsible for 210 regional employees. He is known by his colleagues as "optimistic," "upbeat," a great human being," and "one of the world's greatest delegators" who provides clear guidelines without micromanaging -- skills that seem to enhance employee motivation.

While Banks maintains that an effective manager should employ "sensitivity" and "seek first to understand before [being]...