NewsMakers ’23: Tom Saelinger, community banker; deep roots in NKY drive focus on service, caring

By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor

Tom Saelinger is the consummate community banker who brings to his position as market president for Republic Bank the values he learned growing up on a large family farm in Melbourne in Campbell County, the youngest of ten siblings.

The son of Bill and Marcella Saelinger, he learned the importance of hard work, team play, and cooperation at an early age.

“I learned the value of teamwork, growing up on a farm,” Saelinger says.

Those early lessons have made him the kind, caring, and competent leader he is today — one focused on customer service and “hiring the right people who are going to take care of our customers.”

Saelinger is growing the bank’s footprint in the region through building quality relationships and engagement in the community — achieved by putting his deep knowledge of place to best advantage.

For his deep roots in the region, his embrace of his community, his example as a true servant-leader and role model, his commitment to ethics and integrity,
Tom Saelinger is being honored as a Northern Kentucky Tribune 2023 NewsMaker. His proven “nice guy” reputation is just icing on the cake.

The Saelinger family — Tom and Gina and their daughters (Photo provided)

Saelinger played sports, baseball and basketball, at Bishop Brossart High School in Alexandria, where he is in the Sports Hall of Fame. He and his siblings were schooled in the value of education and a passion for learning. He studied finance with an eye towards business at Xavier University where he received both his undergraduate degree and his MBA. And after working two decades at larger regional banks, he found his perfect match in 2008 when the Louisville-based and family-held Republic Bank decided to move into Northern Kentucky-Cincinnati market.

His role has allowed him to do the kind of banking he wants to do. Republic Bank is the largest community bank in Kentucky and Tom embraces his role in growing its footprint in his home region. The bank most recently opened its newest NKY location in Bellevue, making 44 total banking centers across Republic’s five-state footprint and also acquired CBank in Cincinnati.

“Northern Kentucky is a small community, where people value superior service,” Tom said. “We listen to clients and work with them, and they tell people about us. Our growth in the region has been built relationship by relationship, client by client.

“Our growth in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati allows us to better serve businesses of all sizes and individual customers who needed broader financial support.”

Saelinger is particularly proud of the bank’s investment in technology that makes banking easier for customers. Its Interactive Teller Machines, mobile banking capabilities, and more have earned designation from Newsweek and Lending Tree as one of America’s best online lenders, making banking easy for customers, and the American Bankers Association Foundation named the bank as a winner of its “Community Commitment Award.”

He knows that “customer service” — with a personal touch — is the key to success. He wants his customers to get good decisions in a timely and courteous manner.

“Hiring the right people who are going to take care of customers — and who are problem-solvers” is his primary aim. He definitely believes in high-touch as well as high-tech.

Republic Bank Field (file photo)

The bank’s imprint on the community can be seen and felt all across the region, including the highly visible naming of Republic Bank field at Thomas More University, home to the school’s intercollegiate athletic programs, programming for families and kids at Y’alls ballpark, Emergency Shelter of NKY, Habitat for Humanity, Go Pantry, the public libraries, the TMU Republic Bank Foundation Institute for Career Development and Graduate School Planning, Gateway2NKU scholarships, CBC, the NKY Chamber and many, many other community involvements.

All are reflective of Tom Saelinger’s team leadership in NKY.

Tom and his wife Gina, a partner in the Cincinnati law firm Ulmer and Berne, live in Villa Hills. They have triplet daughters who have eyes set on careers in the medical field. Christa is in medical school at the University of Kentucky, Shannon is studying pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati, and Megan is a nurse practioner.

Needless to say, triplet daughters kept Tom and Gina busy, but Tom always made time so he didn’t miss any of his daughters’ activities. He is a devoted family man, who loves the big get-togethers of his siblings and their families — and cherishes family relationships.

Tom Saelinger’s deep roots in NKY matter — and he makes the most of them.

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