Senior Vice President
Cornerstone National Bank & Trust Company, Palatine
Kevin has visited campus many times since graduating to speak to classes and student groups, and hosted a 2004 Financial Management Association field trip.
Kevin, on the right, is pictured with Cornerstone National Bank credit analyst Jamie Baucom, a 2005 Illinois State University Finance graduate
Area of Finance specialization: Real Estate Management
Hometown: Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Favorite courses at Illinois State: FIL 240 Business Finance and FIL 318 Management of Financial Institutions. Material from both has been fundamental to my career; I use the topics I learned in those courses on a daily basis.
Meeting my wife. She came to a party at my apartment with one of her friends, a woman who was in Delta Sigma Pi with me. Ironically, we lived in neighboring towns and had friends in common, but had never met. We have been married for more than seven years, and have two wonderful children. We often attend weddings and other events to stay in touch with our Delta Sigma Pi friends.
My primary function is generating commercial loans, often backed with real estate collateral. Before making a loan we examine the applicant's current banking arrangements, project their long-term capital spending, analyze the business's financial and strategic plans, have any related real estate appraised, and view the applicant's personal finances to verify capacity to support the requested debt. I have to determine a proper fixed or variable interest rate, based on the parameters of the deal and the risk to the bank, and of course on financial market conditions. The applicant has to meet the bank's requirements, but I also have to prove that my bank can offer services superior to what our competitors do. In these activities I use many of the skill sets I learned while attending ISU, especially ratio analysis from business finance, and comparable analysis and other real estate topics from my three real estate courses. I also draw on my knowledge from the legal environment course in reviewing contracts, and on what I learned in accounting and marketing.
The success I have had in my work as a commercial lender is directly related to the foundation I built in the College of Business , and more specifically the Finance program. The financial concepts I learned, from the basics to senior level topics, have stayed with me and helped me to have an enjoyable and successful career.
