12/9/23 - Weekend Listening from Intercontinental Exchange

With our tailgate fixins safely stowed for a four-hour drive, we’re on the road to Foxboro, Mass. at zero-dark-thirty for today’s 124th Army-Navy Game.

Both teams are 5-6 this year, but it’s still college football’s most revered rivalry. Often staged in Philadelphia, roughly midway between the academies, this is the first time America’s Game has come to New England. As the Boston Globe’s legendary John Powers wrote this week, “what the academy players savor is the throwback amateur essence of their football experience.”

In the era of NIL and the Transfer Portal, the amateur legacies of Army and Navy winners of the Heisman Trophy resonate: Roger Staubach, Pete Dawkins, Joe Bellino, Doc Blanchard, and Glenn Davis. While they played on opposite sides of the ball, they all went on to serve their country wearing the same uniform.

This year, by virtue of its 23-3 rout of Air Force in November, the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy is Army’s to capture with a win. Navy leads the all-time series 62-54-7.

Gillette Stadium has witnessed no joy this fall. My hometown Patriots sit at 3-10 in the AFC East cellar.

Redemption could come after the final whistle -- for our family, at least -- if the Midshipmen ‘sing second’ this afternoon, which hasn’t happened since its 17-13 win in 2021 at MetLife Stadium. Among the 4,4000 members of the Brigade chanting “Navy Blue and Gold” will be my son, Toby King, ’27. A victory might even bring a smile to the curmudgeonly countenance of Bill Belichick, whose father, Steve, coached football at the Academy for 34 years from 1956 to 1989.

From Foxboro, the nearest branch of Berkshire Bank branch (NYSE: BHLB) sits 17 miles west at 91 Main Street in Milford, Mass. The outpost is one of 100 locations of the venerable regional bank, founded in 1846, spread across the Bay State, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.

While steeped in old-school Yankee tradition, the bank today is run by a very different type of leader, Nitin Mhatre , its 51-year-old CEO. Mhatre, who arrived at Berkshire via Webster Bank (NYSE: WBS) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), received his undergraduate and MBA degrees at the University of Mumbai.

Nitin joined me on this week’s episode of Inside the ICE House.

The view from Boston: ?

• Berkshire Bank CEO Nitin Mhatre, Not Your Usual Connecticut Yankee In Beantown Regional businesses work hard to mesh with their geography. Based in New England, Berkshire Hills Bancorp (NYSE: BHLB) makes sure it becomes synonymous with the communities it serves. CEO Nitin Mhatre steps Inside the ICE House to discuss Berkshire’s commitment to region and the responsibilities it has to help customers both inside a branch and connected via the Internet. Nitin also dives deep into his empathetic style of leadership and the importance of building a diverse management team that will endure in the years ahead.

If you’re on a smart phone, all of our Inside the ICE House podcast episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts, including the Apple Podcast App, Spotify, and Stitcher, and other audio platforms. Feel free to reach out to me with any feedback about our show, or suggest any guests for future episodes.

Go Navy. Beat Army.