Community & Regional Bank Search
The Executive Recruiter Group is a nationwide executive search firm specializing in commercial banking recruiting for community and regional banks. We work with established commercial bankers, production teams, and market leaders evaluating strategic career decisions, and with banks seeking proven talent who bring the client relationships and production history to support meaningful growth.
Areas of Focus
Our approach is direct, discreet, highly selective, and focused on fit between the banker, the bank, and the opportunity.
For Banks
We help community and regional banks identify and recruit established commercial bankers, market leaders, and production teams. We focus on bankers with long-term client relationships, strong production history, effective referral networks, deposit-gathering capability, and market credibility. When a bank retains us to fill a specific need, our work is built around discretion, direct outreach, practical market intelligence, and a clear understanding of what causes a successful commercial banker to consider a move.
The bankers worth recruiting are rarely the ones applying to postings. Reaching them takes credibility, discretion, and a clear understanding of how to effectively present what the bank offers both the banker and their clients.
We conduct searches for our client banks on a retained basis and have successfully filled roles across the commercial banking spectrum, including C&I Relationship Manager, CRE Relationship Manager, Commercial Deposits Group Director, Private Banker, Private Client Group, Business Development Officer, Market President, Regional President, Head of SBA, Head of Commercial Banking, Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending, Chief Lending Officer, Deputy Chief Lending Officer, and Commercial Banking Team, among many others.
Our Search Process
Search Scenarios
A few anonymized examples of what proven bankers and teams have done for the institutions we placed them with.
Boosting Core Deposits & NIM
We placed multiple deposit acquisition groups for the private banking division of a regional bank, resulting in substantial first-year core deposit growth, with approximately 75% of the new deposits in DDA balances. These placements positioned the bank for continued low-cost deposit growth and improved net interest margin in the years ahead.
C&I Growth
We placed a three-person team for a regional bank rebalancing its loan portfolio away from a high concentration in investment CRE and multifamily toward more C&I and owner-occupied CRE. Roughly a year later, the team had exceeded its first-year origination goal and more than doubled its target for low-cost deposits, with a pipeline pointing to surpassing that production in year two.
Market Leadership Succession
We placed a highly regarded commercial team leader as Market President for a regional bank, succeeding a long-tenured executive who retired. He inherited a high-performing team, learned its culture, and subsequently blended in the broad perspective he had developed over more than two decades leading commercial lending teams at money-center banks and a super-regional. Under his leadership, the team improved loan growth, credit quality, and staff retention, and he eventually recruited the top two producers from his prior institution.
Launching a New Market Presence
We executed a team lift-out from a money-center bank for a regional bank client, launching its presence in a market where it had not previously operated. The group was a long-tenured, five-person Middle Market team led by a Regional Executive, with a sizable client portfolio of both loans and deposits. After six months of confidential conversations and an extended negotiation, the Regional Executive joined our client as Market President, with the entire team also joining. By the two-year mark, the team had surpassed the goals of its three-year business plan in both loans and deposits.
Expanding Non-Interest Income
We placed an SBA 7(a) manager and producer who spearheaded the launch of a community bank's SBA division, driving a substantial increase in non-interest income within nine months through secondary-market sales of the guaranteed portion. Less than a year later, we placed two experienced BDOs to expand the division and grow 7(a) volume.
Growing Business Operating Accounts
We placed a deposit-focused business banking leader at a family-owned community bank, resulting in a 20% increase in local business accounts within a year. The banker also strengthened the bank's community presence and helped deepen relationships with local businesses.
We work two ways: conducting searches for banks with an immediate need, and connecting established bankers who are open to strategic conversations with vetted institutions.
For Bankers
Many of the bankers we speak with aren't actively looking. They are successful where they are, but open to exploring whether the right bank, leadership team, credit culture, and compensation could create a better long-term opportunity. Our role isn't simply to present openings. We help you assess whether a move makes sense based on the bank, your clients, production history, and long-term fit. Your identity is never shared without your permission.
What We Help You Evaluate
How We Vet the Banks We Represent
A move is only as sound as the institution behind it. Before we introduce a banker to an opportunity, we study the bank behind it. We maintain current call report data on every bank in the U.S., structured so we can gauge an institution's health at a glance. Every conversation is grounded in the bank's real condition. That said, some of the most compelling opportunities can come from banks improving their position by raising capital, executing a strategic plan, or strengthening their treasury capabilities, and we track those signals closely.
Metrics We Track
“Knowing our clients and candidates, and serving their needs, is absolutely everything at The Executive Recruiter Group.”
Chad Hayworth, Founder & Managing Director
About the Firm
The Executive Recruiter Group, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is a nationwide executive search firm with a long track record of serving community and regional banks and the established commercial bankers who drive their growth. We primarily work with banks holding between $500 million and $50 billion in assets, combining direct market outreach, long-term relationship development, and practical industry knowledge to help banks and bankers evaluate opportunities with discretion and care.
About the Founder
The Executive Recruiter Group was founded by Chad Hayworth, who brings more than 25 years of executive recruiting experience to his work. His approach is built on a simple premise: that a commercial banker's next move should be evaluated with the same rigor a bank applies to its own balance sheet. He applies that discipline to both sides of every engagement, helping banks recruit proven talent and helping established bankers weigh opportunities with candor and discretion.
Our Values
We do not manufacture interest, oversell candidates, or pressure banks to chase a hire that does not fit. Every conversation is grounded in what we believe is true: the banker's production history, the bank's condition, the role's economics, the market, and the realistic likelihood of a successful move.
Commercial banking recruiting is not résumé matching. We weigh credit culture, leadership, client portability, deposit strength, compensation structure, geography, timing, and the banker's long-term goals before deciding whether a conversation belongs in front of either side.
We manage the search process closely from first call through offer, resignation, and start date. That means clear communication, disciplined outreach, candidate preparation, market feedback, offer strategy, and direct accountability for the work we agree to do.
We measure our work by the quality, fit, and performance of the bankers we place, not by activity for activity's sake. The standard is whether the hire strengthens the bank, serves the banker's clients, and makes sense over the long term.
Confidentiality is not a feature of our process: it is the process. We protect candidate identity, client strategy, compensation details, market-sensitive information, and every relationship that could be damaged by careless communication.
We build long-term relationships with banks and bankers by giving direct advice, even when the best answer is not the easiest one. Our role is to help both sides make informed decisions that hold up after the search is complete.
Get in Touch
Whether you are a bank seeking to recruit proven bankers, or an established commercial banker, production team, or market leader considering the right next move, we welcome the opportunity to speak with you.