Crystal Dionne has spent her career in the finance industry and is proud to join the small club of women leaders in the banking industry as president and CEO of Primary Bank. Prior to joining the bank, Dionne served as the CFO for the town of Bedford for almost 15 years and also worked as the CFO for the NH Lottery.
“I’ve always been a numbers person,” she says. “Data has never proven me wrong; I love data analysis.”
In 2015 Dionne received a call from William Greiner, co-owner of Copper Door, T-Bones and Cactus Jack’s restaurants, and owner of Greiner investments. Greiner, now chairman of Primary Bank’s board of directors, asked Dionne to take a chance and come to work for a new community bank that he and other NH business leaders were starting.
“Bill felt at the time it was important for a community bank to help local businesses because we were seeing a vast majority of local banks being gobbled up by the bigger banks,” Dionne says. “There were fewer and fewer options for businesses to gain access to capital.”
Dionne quickly rose to CFO and executive vice president. Much has happened in the almost nine years since Primary Bank opened its doors. “While we’re still a commercial bank focused on the southern New Hampshire market, we’ve grown exponentially,” Dionne says. “It has been an interesting and wild ride.”
Primary Bank has branches in Manchester, Derry and Nashua. The bank finished 2023 with nearly $700 million in assets. “In a matter of eight and a half years, to grow this much is pretty remarkable.”
Dionne attributes much of the growth to the bank’s pandemic response with Paycheck Protection Program loans. It was able to attract new customers who had been turned away by their banks.
When founding President William Stone retired last September, Greiner took over as interim president and CEO before the board promoted Dionne to lead the bank in February. She was also appointed to the American Bankers Association’s Emerging Leaders Council.
Dionne attributes Primary Bank’s success to its relationships in communities and with customers, which she plans to build on. “We are a relationship driven bank and we want to be the bank that supports businesses in the community,” she says. “We infuse our funds back into the local economy to help it grow and thrive.”
When not leading the bank, Dionne, who used to run her own dance studio, enjoys spending time with her two kids. “I really enjoy dancing with my daughter who dances competitively, and I’m still involved in the dance community. My kids still keep me very, very busy.”