MDLF Executive Director Mike Young spoke with Old National Bank President and COO Jim Sandgren and Chairman and CEO Jim Ryan about what makes Indiana so appealing as a state to do business, and how our state stacks up to our 49 competitors.

You can listen to the recording, or read the transcript below.

Mike Young: Welcome, everybody, to the next in a series of several Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation podcasts, where we travel the state and talk to important people doing important work in Indiana.

Today we're meeting with Jim Sandgren, who's the President and COO of Old National Bank, and Jim Ryan, who's the Chairman and CEO of Old National Bank located in Evansville.

Jim Sandgren is the, as I said, President and COO. He lives in Newburgh and was originally an economics major at the DePauw before spending 28 years at Old National, being the Region CEO in 2007, the Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer in 2014, and now COO and President as of 2016.

Jim Ryan, who's the chairman and CEO of Old National, is also a Newburgh resident and spent 16 years at Old National Bank, first as Senior Vice President and Treasurer in 2005, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO in 2016, and now serving as Chairman and CEO since 2019. Jim, Jim, welcome. Thank you for making time to do this.

Jim Sandgren: Good morning. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here and [crosstalk 00:01:00]

Jim Ryan: Good morning. I'm a little concerned about the background check you did on us before you allowed us on your podcast.

Mike Young: I had some help just to make sure I got everything correct. So we're going to talk today. This is going to be a two part podcast. For those of you listening, be sure to check out the second half when that drops as well. But today, our focus is going to be on Indiana versus other states, looking at how we compare to the 49 eager competitors that are constantly vying for our business, talent, and companies.

Our first question, and feel free to just jump in, I won't assign this either of you, but it might be a little bit of an open one. Why is Old National headquartered in Indiana?

Jim Sandgren: Well, it's hard to answer that question because we've been headquartered here in Indiana since 1834. But we've been based here in Evansville since then. We started in a one room bank building on the very lot that our headquarter building sits today. We ran a bank, we traded fur out the back of that bank at that time. So we knew diversification was pretty important even back then. Indiana is home and we've been here for one hundred and 85 plus years and that's why we're here.

Our commitment is to be that community bank. We're committed to Evansville and we're committed to Indiana.

Mike Young: Fantastic. Jim, do you have anything to add to that?

Jim Ryan: No, he summed it up well. It's been great to have a headquarters here in southwest Indiana. I know we'll talk a little bit more about southwest Indiana in a minute, but it's a pretty special place. We're glad to be in Indiana and glad to be in Evansville.

Mike Young: Does being based in Indiana give you some sort of a competitive edge that you couldn't get somewhere else?

Jim Ryan: First of all, I would say Indiana, if you're running a business, is a great place to be. The connectivity to our leaders locally is amazing. The connectivity to our leaders in central Indiana, including the governor and folks in Congress, is fantastic. We're really blessed to have... Part of that, I think, gets back to kind of who is your values, right? Practical Midwest values, friendly. So we have a lot of connectivity to leaders across the state.

Jim Ryan: But also, I think it's an intentional effort on behalf of all of us to really create that climate that welcomes business, that looking forward to everyone's success, and allows everybody to do their best work. That's what I really like about Indiana. Quite frankly, not all states that we operate in in the Midwest probably have that attitude. So I think, kudos to actually Mitch Daniels, who really turned that business climate around and was instrumental in creating the right foundation that the governors that have followed Mitch have really been able to to expand and improve upon. But it was really Mitch Daniels that really created that foundation.

Jim Sandgren: Yeah, absolutely. Just a very business friendly state with a tremendous workforce. You think about just work ethics and just Hoosiers. The Midwest work ethic has just been incredible. We're blessed with that and we want to grow a population be able to fill more jobs, but again, blessed with a really strong workforce.

Mike Young: Are there any downsides to being in Indiana?

Jim Ryan: There's no downsides to being in Indiana. Maybe one of the challenges we find ourselves in, the population in southwest Indiana is not growing as fast as maybe other parts of the state. So when you're looking to expand, it's a little bit harder to get talent here locally. You have to bring talent into the marketplace. Where if we were in central Indiana or places like that, it might be a little bit easier to do that. But again, we wouldn't trade up all the benefits of being here for some of the some of the downside of maybe not being here.

Jim Sandgren: Yeah, I can't add anything to that.

Mike Young: Well, is there anything that you would change about the way we do business in Indiana?

Jim Ryan: Well, again, I believe and I've told all the people that I know in central Indiana that are involved in some form of government that we've done a great job, but now's not the time to look inward. Now's the time to look outward. We need to be investing more. We need to find the dollars to go out and invest. When everybody else is maybe licking their wounds a little bit and we know tax revenue is going to be challenged in the following years based on what's been happening economy due to the pandemic, now's the time for us to be really looking outward.

I think this is where all those relationships and strengths that we have and the fact that we generally like each other is really going to come in handy, because we really need to be looking outward. We need to be going out and attracting new businesses. We also need to be putting up things that attract talent.

One of the biggest things, one of the biggest obstacles I think Indiana has is just, and it's quite frankly, it's across the Midwest, but one of the biggest obstacles we have is actually growing our population, because we will not be able to grow our businesses unless we have people that can run those businesses and work in those businesses. I think that's one of the single biggest things we can do, is being really proactive and looking forward and being willing to make some strategic investments now, is that now is the time to do that.

Jim Sandgren: Some of those great investments that the governor and Jim Schellinger at IEDC traveling across the globe to bring in unbelievable companies, adding jobs and some really good talent. Our partnership with Infosys is a great example of the great things that outreach has helped with the state. They've been a great partner for us and I know they'll be a great partner for a lot of others here in the state and in the Midwest.

Jim Ryan: I think last time I checked, we had 90,000 job openings in Indiana. Having jobs is not really the problem. It's having people that can fill the jobs with the right skills. We need to focus on reskilling people if they don't have the right skills and getting more people in to fill those jobs.

Mike Young: So there are jobs open at Old National?

Jim Ryan: There are jobs open at Old National. Absolutely.

Jim Sandgren: There are, yes.

Mike Young: Great. Well, it's always good to hear. Hiring and growing is a very positive thing. Well, Jim and Jim, I want to say thanks again for making time to talk with us. We look forward to talking to you again in the next segment about some more about the southwest Indiana region and things that are going on in this part of the state.