While Charles “Skip” Hageboeck may have grown up in Indiana, he is a man who exhibits the true spirit of West Virginia. As the president and CEO of City National Bank and City Holding Company, Hageboeck is a hardworking individual who not only prioritizes serving his community but encourages those around him to do the same.
Skip Hageboeck was born into a family of educators and entrepreneurs. His father was a Pharmacist who earned a PhD in later life and began an academic career teaching Pharmacy at Butler University. His mother was a teacher as were several aunts and uncles. Skip’s grandfathers were both businessmen, one running a family pharmacy and the other starting and growing a well-recognized brand of handgun ammunition. The values that Skip was born into of hard work, respect for others and encouragement have laid the foundation of a very successful career.
Like his parents and grandparents before him, Skip attended Butler University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in only two years before heading to Indiana University where he earned a PhD in economics.
Skip began his career at INB Financial Corporation in 1987. While there, he was exposed to the management team’s strong emphasis on mentoring. By providing opportunities for employees to develop skills and encouraging them to ask questions, the management team enabled Hageboeck to develop the skills that have allowed him to be successful in life. The experience also sparked within him a passion for mentoring others.
From that first engagement, Skip moved to a family-controlled but publicly traded small community bank as CFO. That bank, Peoples, sold for a record 4.2x book value and 30x earnings in 1999. Skip then joined the Diagnostics arm of Roche Pharmaceuticals in a high level financial analysis role.
Skip was lured to participate in the turnaround of City National Bank in West Virginia in 2001. City was struggling significantly, but the turnaround was quick and decisive, with City’s stock sharply rebounding from trading about 50% of book value to trading at 250% of book value only 2 years from the trough. During the turnaround, Skip served as CFO. When the Company’s CEO resigned to pursue other interests, the board asked Skip to lead the company.
In the years that followed, many honors and recognition for City followed. Skip was named as the Community Banker of the Year in 2018 by the American Banker, selected from thousands of community bank CEO’s. The bank’s common stock trades at a price-to-book ratio among the highest in the industry, reflecting the bank’s significant above-average profitability. City has demonstrated exceptional commitment to customer service, as demonstrated by JD Power’s recognition of City as providing the Highest in Customer Satisfaction in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. As a community bank, City takes great pride in its engagement within each local community in which it operates.
Skip regularly attributes City success to having built a phenomenal customer base as well as outstanding team members. “There is a lot of untapped talent in the workplace ready and able to take on new challenges if only we provide the opportunity, and this is something our state needs to remember,” he says. “West Virginia is absolutely blessed with strong, talented and resilient people, and if we create a business environment where our people can flourish, they will step up and grow our state.”
Skip and his wife Samantha, have four adult children who are all off to their own amazing careers in banking, medicine, accounting, and technology. Skip and Samantha are proud to call Charleston their home. They maintain a home just north of Indianapolis to be close to their parents and take time for themselves at their lakefront home in northern Indiana.
