Lauren OtisStaff Writer
The Bank of Princeton is growing up, and Andrew Chon is the new steward of the community bank’s next phase.
Mr. Chon, 52, was elected by the bank’s board of directors to take over as chairman and chief executive officer from Stephen Distler, who had announced he would be stepping down.
”The bank right now is passing the startup phase and growing up a little bit,” said Mr. Chon in an interview Thursday. Noting that Mr. Distler had done an excellent job in the first phase of the bank’s life, Mr. Chon said, “the board of directors saw that it requires my type of skills and business background to go from the startup phase to the growing up phase.”
Mr. Chon, a resident of Princeton Township with his wife, Sook, and daughter, Monica, since 2003, was most recently executive vice president of Samsung Electronics Co. in Seoul, South Korea. He has also held executive positions with Lucent Technologies, AT&T and NCR Corp.
Both Mr. Chon and Mr. Distler are among a group of 20 founding investors of the Bank of Princeton, which opened its doors in April 2007. Mr. Distler, a former investment banker with Warburg Pincus and chairman of the board of directors of the bank, took over as president and CEO in the fall of 2008 after the departure of Peter Crowley, the bank’s original president and CEO. At the time, Martin Melilli was brought in as Bank of Princeton president. Mr. Melilli will continue as president, reporting to Mr. Chon.
On Thursday, Mr. Distler said “a confluence of events” was behind his decision to turn over the reins of the bank to somebody else. “The Bank of Princeton has gotten itself to a terrific point right now and I have a fair number of other commitments,” Mr. Distler said. Mr. Distler is majority owner of elements, a high-end startup restaurant in the township.
Mr. Distler said the skills he employed in getting the community bank launched were different from those “that will get it to the second and third level,” which Mr. Chon possesses.
”He’s been with us from the very beginning and we are fortunate that he is such a capable guy,” Mr. Distler said.
Asked what initial operational or other changes he might make at the bank, Mr. Chon said “I’ve been on the job for three days. It will require for me to go in and look at the operation in more detail. Right now I don’t have any preconceived idea,” for what changes may be made.
Mr. Chon said he intends to focus on five key areas at the bank, which currently has four branches, in Princeton Township where it is headquartered, Princeton Borough, Pennington and Hamilton, and in excess of $200 million in assets.
”Number one, make sure that we operate the bank in a safe and sound manner. That is the number one criteria for me,” he said.
”Another priority is providing the best customer care and service. In the end my salary is paid by customers,” Mr. Chon said.
Continuing the bank’s mission as a community bank is also a key priority — “to contribute to make the place where we live better off” — Mr. Chon said. “When we put money into PNC Bank that money goes to Pittsburgh. When we put money in another bank that money goes to Charleston, South Carolina. When the community puts their money in the Bank of Princeton that money goes to Princeton,” he said.
Ensuring employees of the bank are properly trained to meet the needs of clients, and obtaining a profitable return for shareholders are other important priorities, he said.
Mr. Chon said the reason for the transition was the internal need for the bank to move beyond its startup phase, and “has nothing to do with outside economic factors.” He said the bank sought to grow despite the uncertain economic times.
Mr. Distler said bank customers should take heart in the fact that the Bank of Princeton is financially secure when much of the economy is in a shambles.
”As the world seems to be collapsing around us, the bank is about to reject an offer from the government for TARP money,” he said, referring to the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program which has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in an effort to prop up the balance sheets of troubled financial institutions.
Executives with the Bank of Princeton, and other area community banks, have in the past said they are healthy and have avoided the loan and balance sheet problems of their larger peers in current financial crisis.
”The number one goal for the Bank of Princeton in 2009 is not just growth, it is balanced growth, making sure growth is in line with safety, and safety is in line with profit,” Mr. Chon said.

