James (Chip) Mahan believes that he and his fellow Live Oak Bank employees have “the best job in the world.”

Mahan, CEO and chairman of Wilmington-based Live Oak Bank, was the keynote speaker at Wednesday’s WilmingtonBiz Conference & Expo luncheon. He talked about the bank’s business model but emphasized the people factors that make the organization successful.

His talk to about 600 people at the Wilmington Convention Center was preceded by a short video featuring a chicken farmer in Mississippi whose life and income had improved dramatically as a result of an SBA-guaranteed loan from Live Oak Bank. Helping small business owners achieve their dreams, Mahan said, was extremely rewarding.

Mahan and his fellow Live Oak executives also want the bank's employees to find their jobs rewarding in more tangible ways as well.

The Live Oak founder listed the bank’s employee benefits – including a company match for each employee’s 401K plan, paid health insurance, an on-campus gym with personal trainer service – and explained that the bank’s focus on treating its employees well pays big dividends for the company.

“The object of the exercise is the ability to look everybody squarely in the eye and say, ‘You are important to me,’” Mahan said. “If [employees] feel part of the team, you never want to let a team mate down.”

Employees who feel they are integral to the organization, and who are treated well are not looking elsewhere for their next career opportunity, Mahan added.

“All the young folks in Silicon Valley have a short-term mentality,” he said. “They are on LinkedIn, looking for the next job across the street. Pierre [Naudé, CEO of nCino] and I ... think if we can get you to Wilmington, why would you leave?”

For the past two years, Live Oak Bank has topped American Banker’s list of best banks to work for.

During the keynote session, conducted in question-and-answer format, Mahan also discussed his early years in the banking industry, starting at Wachovia Bank in Winston-Salem in the 1970s. His career then took him back to his native Kentucky, where he began to consider alternative banking models. A family connection led him to Atlanta to launch Security First, the country’s first Internet bank, which developed its own software system. Both have since been sold to other companies.

He acknowledged that Security First was probably 20 years ahead of its time, but believed strongly that he had the seeds of a profitable bank concept, just as the world of banking was subject to additional regulations as a result of the financial meltdown of 2008. Live Oak Bank was one of the last two community banks chartered by the FDIC before 2008, Mahan said.

“When regulators are all over you and you are in a declining business, it’s very tough,” he said of the situation many banks find themselves in nowadays.

The desire to “do something different” led Mahan to work with a former colleague, Neil Underwood, and others to design a bank that didn’t depend on branches or retail services, but would instead leverage a successful government program – Small Business Administration lending – and lend to only the industries with the best repayment records.

Currently, Live Oak Bank lends in 13 such verticals, employs 375 people and sees no limit to growth. In each of its verticals it hires a domain expert who guides the lending team in analyzing lending risk to applicants in that industry.

Because its lending is nationwide and efficiency is paramount, Live Oak – like Security First before it - designed its own software system to include every step of the lending process and make it user friendly. That aspect of the business spun off in early 2012 as nCino, another fast-growing local company.

While Live Oak has ambitious plans for growth, and went public last July, it will maintain its employee-centered culture even as it adds employees and buildings on its tree-shaded campus in midtown Wilmington, Mahan said. Friends and family still control about half of its outstanding stock shares.

Asked what direction the area’s business community should take, Mahan said he was reminded of his boss at Wachovia.

“My territory was Kentucky, so my boss would come into my office and ask, ‘What are you doing here?’” Mahan said, explaining that his job was to be in his territory, calling on prospects and adding new business.

“It’s all shoe leather. Who are you after? What are you doing?” he asked the audience. “I don’t know why we can’t create a little Silicon Valley right here in Wilmington, North Carolina.”