Renee Anderson feels like she “grew up” working at Illinois National Bank.

Renee, a deposit operations officer, started at the former INB in 1977 and will retire from today’s INB at the end of February.

In a 2016 blog post she said, “I started at INB with wires, cash management, correspondent banking and investment opportunities, she recalls. There were so many good people and friends that it felt like the right thing to do to come back in 2006 and work in wires again. Life really is a circle!”

I began working for Renee at the original INB in December of 1982. I had been at the bank for 11 months as a proof operator. Renee provided the foundation of my banking career by teaching me a great number of skills and concepts that I have used for 35 years now. I already had experience with debits and credits and balancing from working in the proof department. Renee expanded on that simple bit of knowledge and taught me most general banking principles. I learned about the bank’s General Ledger, Cash Flow, calculating Fed Funds interest, and the concepts of Asset Liability Management. She taught me about Wire Transfer, Due To and Due From Bank management, and managing our position with the Federal Reserve. She introduced me to the concepts of Ledger and Collected balances and what “Float” meant. I could go on and on. (Repurchase Agreements, Security Safekeeping, Loan Participations, International exchange rates, etc.)

In addition to the bank concepts, I gained valuable people skills and learned how to multitask. In the proof department, I didn’t really have much interaction with other people. Working for Renee in Funds Management, I became comfortable working with individuals at all levels of our bank as well as a wide variety of customers. Renee insured that I learned how to communicate effectively with all of these individuals. When I joined her department, I marveled at Renee’s ability to talk with a customer on the phone while calculating Fed Funds interest for our Correspondent Banking customers while creating a wire to be sent through the Fed to some far away bank. She did all of these things simultaneously and also knew exactly what was going on in my telephone conversation with another customer. It further amazed me when she developed me into someone with the ability to multitask like she could.

All of this guidance factored heavily into my life after working for Renee in Funds Management. I had other positions in various departments throughout my tenure in banking, and along the way the knowledge and tools that Renee taught me have been critical to my success.

Renee is not only a mentor, but a great friend to both my wife, Barb, and I for the last 35 years. We’ve shared a lot of good times and great friends over the years. I’ll miss seeing her at work each day, but am happy that she gets to enjoy her much deserved retirement.

Kim Beckett more simply reiterates a similar story of a working friendship. She says, “I have known Renee since the late 80’s early 90’s working at the old INB at #1 Old State Capitol Plaza . . . I would like to wish her the best of times in her retirement. She been a good co-worker. I hope she gets to go many places.”