Mr. Downtowner
Doug White:
Eye on Economics
By Renee Targos

Attending association meetings, ArtWalks, and Farmer’s Market in downtown, Doug White, president and CEO of Sunrise Bank of Arizona is the man about town. As alma mater from the Consumer Banking Associations Graduate School of Retail Bank Management held at the University of Virginia, the Oklahoma native is using old-school banking techniques to unite the community to weather the economy. As an avid family man, dog-lover and martial arts expert, White is a man connected to the tastes, events and people of downtown.

SD: What excites you about working with the bank and community? 

DW: At Sunrise Bank of Arizona, I have the freedom to create and deliver products and services that really meet the needs of our business and consumer community members, instead of offering canned products. For the first time in many years, I feel like a real community banker, like the ones from the days gone by. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

For example, with our merchant card vendor Meridian, we developed a program which can provide the community the funds to pay for their marketing programs and virtually not change anything they are doing today. 

SD: Any suggestions for Downtowners, which could improve life and business?

DW: I have a couple of thoughts on this. A community can be defined in many ways; however, I feel it is a group of people having common interest and similarities, neighbors, friends, and family. When times get tough, a community comes together and combines it commonalities to survive and thrive. 

I know many of our community members are business competitors; therefore, many may do business in a solo mentality—but we really are a family of businesses. Reach out to your fellow business owner and get to know them and some of their products.  If you don’t have the product a client needs maybe your neighbor does - so give the client an idea where they should go to buy the product. The end goal for all of us is to have more people come to our area to do business. Good traffic, great service, and a friendly and safe environment will bring the customers to your door to hopefully buy your products.

Secondly, get to know your banker. Your banker must be your partner and when economic times get difficult, such as it is now, this will be extremely important.

SD: What are some of your hopes for the area?

DW: My hopes for the community is for each and every business we have in downtown to survive, thrive, and be the place that everyone, regardless of age, enjoys coming to spend their time. We have a remarkable downtown, which is vibrant and has so much to offer. Downtown has the ability to be almost anything it wants to be, and we have the entrepreneurs to do it. It is all about daring yourself to dream of what it could be.