While everyone in the Queens business community knows him as “Hank from the Bank,” Hank Auffarth has a new home – Herald National Bank.
Auffarth, who has 40 years of senior level banking experience, most recently as a Senior Vice President of the Commercial Markets Group for Citibank, is now a Senior Managing Director & Senior Vice President at Herald National Bank.
“I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity, and I think the bank is finding itself at such an extraordinary time,” Auffarth said. “There is such difficulty in the banking market, and here is a bank that is paying attention, hiring the best people.”
Less than a year old, Herald National Bank has locations in Brooklyn, Long Island and Manhattan, with its sights set on New Jersey in the near future. Although it only has three branch locations, Herald National Bank believes the best relationship is not with a bank branch, but with a banker. Because of this, one of Herald’s goals was to create an environment where the banker can be a single point of contact to deliver all of the services needed for the particular client.
“We really go back to caring about the client, which is the way I have always operated, and I enjoy that,” Auffarth said.
However, Auffarth believes that what makes Herald unique is that they combine the personal touch with the latest technology.
“It is state-of-the-art banking because we have the most sophisticated cash management services,” Auffarth said.
Herald allowed Auffarth to assemble his own team, which consists of Michael Laurie, Senior Vice President and Managing Director; Thomas Pergola, Senior Vice President and Managing Director; and Donna LaGatta, Senior Private Client Associate. Auffarth believes that putting together a team that really cares about the clients, has a wealth of experience and works well together is the winning combination.
“We want to reconnect [with clients] on a very personal basis,” Auffarth said. “It’s a team effort.”
In addition to heading up the new team at Herald National Bank, Auffarth is also extremely involved in the Queens community. He serves on the board of the directors of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, is the chair of the loan review committee of the New York Business Development Corp. and has taught CPE and CLE courses for many years.
