He exemplifies leadership ; W.Va. businessman joins elite national group [Charleston Gazette, The (WV)]

Pat Bond, of Charleston, joins an elite group of corporate directors and corporate governance professionals, becoming the first National Association of Corporate Directors Fellow from West Virginia.

The NACD fellowship program is the highest level of credentialing and requires candidates to complete a course about issues pertinent to the association, followed by an additional NACD continuing- education session within a 12-month period.

Fellows also must renew their status yearly with continuing education, which comes by way of peer partnerships and interaction.

Bond's career began in Cleveland after he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering from West Virginia University. He soon returned home to work in state government for a few years before he entered the banking industry.

Bond started working for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh in 2007, and was recently re-elected to a four-year term. Locally, he is a founding general partner of Mountaineer Capital. He also serves on the board of directors for several of Mountaineer's portfolio companies, including Vested Health, Aero Corp., JBLCo and Troy and Vandalia Research Inc.

"He exemplifies leadership," said Winthrop Watson, CEO at FHLBank Pittsburgh. "He cares about people and is passionate about West Virginia."

The FHLBank provides liquidity for the banks in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware, which own the Pittsburgh-based bank.

Between serving on the board of directors for the FHLBank, Mountaineer Capital and several of its portfolio companies, moving companies forward is always on Bond's mind.

"Those ideas and thoughts can come at any time," he said. "Some of them are off the wall, but others you want to pursue."

One of the ideas that Bond was able to bring to life was diversifying the membership of the board of directors at FHLBank. When Bond arrived, the board was comprised of 15 people, with only one woman and one African-American. Now, there are four women, two Hispanics and one African-American.

"You want the different backgrounds of folks, with different experiences they've had, the different ways they approach problems," Bond said. "That diversity in the board room is very important for making good decisions."

Watson believes Bond's experience as a banker and in the affordable housing market helped move the bank forward.

Before Bond took over as CEO, the bank had, "a large portfolio of troubled securities that the bank had to work out," Watson said. Bond was a leader in that restructuring that Watson called absolutely crucial.

"He's uniquely talented at building bridges, and using those to fix problems," Watson added.

So far, Bond has completed 58 hours of classroom, conference or online training sessions to learn about what he sees as the important issues that corporations are facing today. He wants to know the risks. Bond wants his companies to be prepared for anything from cybersecurity to the loss of top company officials.

Laughing, Bond said that his job is challenging at times but never boring. He directs a company in the insurance business, another one that reproduces DNA and an aerospace business. In addition, he directs a company that services the automobile industry and another that services both the coal and aggregate industry.

"You have a lot of different skills in there, but I think my biggest thing is my financial background and my engineering background with all these manufacturing companies," he said.

Bond is most looking forward to continuing to attend seminars and conferences where he meets people from across the country, and where they can freely discuss similar problems.

"From a board's perspective, we don't want to get into the weeds," Bond said. "We're not there to manage the company, but from our perspective, 'What are the questions I should ask?'"

chris dorst | Sunday Gazette-Mail Pat Bond has achieved the highest level of credentialing in the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Reach Caitlin Cook at [email protected] or 304-348- 5113.