When Steve Steinour became chairman, president and CEO of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated in January 2009, he wanted to improve more than just the struggling company’s financial health.
Six and a half years later, he’s not only reversed the bank’s money-losing trends, he’s made major efforts to improve employees’ wellness and their attitudes toward it.
Steinour, 57, lives in New Albany with his wife, Patti. The couple have two grown children.
Steve Steinour
Though it would be an understatement to call the company’s wellness program – started in 2010 under Steinour’s leadership – multifaceted, one of the central components to it is Huntington’s strong participation in and support of Pelotonia. The evidence is abundant; logos are visible all throughout the company’s downtown Columbus corporate headquarters, and a video on Huntington’s involvement in the ride plays on a continuous loop on the executive floor.
The massive bike ride that raises money for The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute was not yet one year old when Steinour took an interest in it.
“We wanted to create … an activity that we would do corporately that would have a wellness component to it,” he says.
Steinour was impressed with the ride’s mission and with the work of Dr. Michael Caligiuri, director of the James, and worked with company leadership to incorporate it into the wellness program and encourage participation.
That first year, the Huntington team had 50 riders. Now, it sports about 1,200 cyclists – of whom, Steinour estimates, about 1,100 got into cycling because of Pelotonia.
“I love what it’s doing for the company; it has a broad impact,” says Steinour. “They don’t have to, but people get really into it.”
Pelotonia made sense for Huntington because the company’s wellness program is intended to promote not just exercise, but collaborative spirit and morale. Steinour has observed the effect on group dynamics firsthand as he has taken part in training rides – some of which have swelled to as many as 400 riders – leading up to the big event each year.
“I have a different conversation on the seat of a bicycle than I do in the seat in my office,” he says.
Employees are invited from all Huntington markets – not just Columbus – to ride in Pelotonia.
Employees are usually photographed during the race, and the pictures are then posted in community rooms throughout the main Huntington building.
Motioning around a conference room on the executive floor, Steinour says, “We have nearly 100 (photos) throughout this room.”
The spirit of collaboration extends beyond the walls of Huntington’s HQ and branches, Steinour says. Huntington invites employees of companies that bank with it to join in on rides and helps them get involved, often leading them to form their own Pelotons in later years. It even brings in Columbus College of Art and Design students to design custom riding jerseys.
Of course, as Pelotonia only comes once a year, there are innumerable other facets of Huntington’s wellness program: biometric screenings, physicals, tobacco cessation, flu shots, weight loss programs, walking challenges (for which the company gives out pedometers), a mindfulness program, calorie counting, healthful recipes, a corporate match for health savings accounts, health facilities in some buildings and more.
Offering these types of programs benefits the company, just as it benefits employees; it’s always better to have more productive employees and lower health care costs, Steinour says. And the company has put a lot of effort into rolling out programs to appeal to employees without making them uncomfortable: rewards programs, voluntary reporting, etc. Big changes have been phased in slowly and accompanied by options for employees to ease transitions – think changing the cafeteria menus and vending machine offerings, or going to a tobacco-free campus.
Before he came to Huntington in 2009, Steinour was managing partner of Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital Partners. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Citizens Financial Group, headquartered in Providence, R.I. He has also held leadership positions at Fleet Financial Group and the Bank of New England.
He holds a degree in economics from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University.
Besides the major health and wellness changes – and changing the bank from a money-loser into a growth bank, no small feat – Steinour turned Huntington into one of the country’s largest Small Business Administration lenders and implemented the bank’s 24-Hour Grace policy on overdrafts.
He only got into biking for Pelotonia, but cycling has quickly become Steinour’s preferred form of exercise, completely replacing golf in his busy schedule.
“In a good year, I’ll ride a couple thousand miles,” he says.
Even when riding for recreation, he appreciates the togetherness the activity foments, often riding with his wife or son, or with Caligiuri and his team. The family is also a part of frequent walks, aided by New Albany’s impressive trail network, and will “occasionally hit a few tennis balls, too,” Steinour says.
“New Albany is such a wonderful community to get out and get active,” he says.
Economic development is another big part of Steinour’s life. He’s a trustee on the board of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, and also recently helped to launch a multi-state economic development conference driven by the Columbus Partnership.
He and Patti are co-chairing campaigns for the United Way of Central Ohio and the Community Shelter Board, and Patti maintains a high level of involvement in CCAD. And the whole family gets in on volunteering for a YWCA shelter.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
