Donor Spotlight: Tim Marshall & Bank of Ann Arbor

By UMS

Bank of Ann Arbor has supported UMS for nearly three decades, and this season, BOAA is a principal sponsor of our upcoming presentation of Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. At the helm of that partnership is Tim Marshall, Executive Chairman and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor and current Chair of the UMS Board of Directors. We sat down with Tim to talk about how his love of music began, what draws BOAA to organizations like UMS, and the stories behind two of the bank’s most beloved local traditions: Sonic Lunch and its signature billboards.

How did your interest in the arts begin?

Growing up, my father had a record player, and he would listen to music while working in his office — music that I didn’t really connect with at the time. But it gave me the opportunity to use his record player occasionally, so I went out and bought 33s and 45s and got to listen to music he absolutely hated.

We had a mutual respect for each other — I didn’t like his music, and he didn’t like mine. I’ll never forget trying to introduce him to Pink Floyd, The Guess Who, and a number of other early bands I listened to growing up. My brother gravitated toward artists like Chicago and Loggins and Messina, while I leaned more toward the rock culture that was just developing at the time.

You’re originally from Indianapolis. What brought you and your family to Ann Arbor?

Bank of Ann Arbor brought me here. I’d been in the banking business for years, running a bank headquartered in Indianapolis with a hub-and-spoke model, with locations in Lafayette, Kokomo, Logansport, Fort Wayne, and Columbus. The opportunity to come to Bank of Ann Arbor, with a more tightly focused geographic strategy, was appealing. I’d experienced significant growth in my previous role, and I was confident I could come to Ann Arbor and help assemble a strong team to grow the institution. That’s exactly what we’ve been able to accomplish. We’ve hit $3.5 billion in bank assets, our wealth group is now north of $3 billion in assets, and we’ve gone from 40 employees to 325. It’s been a great run since I joined Bank of Ann Arbor, 22 years ago now, in July 2004.

Bank of Ann Arbor has supported UMS and our performances since 1998. What’s your philosophy on how BOAA selects what to support?

It’s been a long history of commitment to the community. It’s not about any one organization or one decision — it goes back to the formation of the bank itself. The bank opened in January 1996, and just two years later, while we were still getting our footing, the commitment was made to UMS. That commitment has only grown since, alongside our support for organizations across health and human services, seniors, youth, homelessness, and healthcare — as well as arts and culture. We cast a wide net, supporting the organizations that help make the Ann Arbor region a better place to live, work, and play. We can use some of our success to support people seeking a better life. That’s part of the DNA of the bank and the people we hire. We’re a very altruistic organization, and our mission is to live by our tagline: “Bank of Ann Arbor Helps.”

Sonic Lunch has become such a beloved summer concert series in downtown Ann Arbor, and it began under your tenure. What inspired you to start it?

When I was at Salin Bank and Trust in Indianapolis, we had a series in a different genre, called Popfest, which was a collaboration between Salin Bank and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Every summer we’d take some of the orchestra members out to the various communities we did business in and put on a summer pops concert. It gave me the sense that a banking institution could give to many different organizations, but there was real benefit to being the presenting sponsor of one signature event or festival.

That was the starting point: Bank of Ann Arbor is an altruistic organization that supports many nonprofits, but I saw an opportunity to do something unique — something that would stand out in the community as a point of differentiation among other corporate citizens. Our management team got behind the idea in 2007, and this is now our 19th year of Bank of Ann Arbor Sonic Lunch. It’s been very successful, and it’s positioned the bank as a positive corporate citizen trying to help make this one of the best communities we can all enjoy.

Bank of Ann Arbor also distinguishes itself with its clever tongue-in-cheek billboards showcasing local organizations and businesses. What’s the process behind those?

That’s a good question — it all started back in 2005. I’d inherited a very generic advertising strategy: it featured bankers, it featured customers, and honestly, you could look at it and ask, is that Bank of Ann Arbor, or ABC Bank, or CDEF Bank? They all looked exactly the same. My friend Ernie Perich, of Perich and Partners — who I met over a hamburger at Knight’s Steakhouse on Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, and whose agency we’ve worked with ever since — brought me a Crain’s magazine where he’d cut out fifteen different bank ads and asked, “Can you tell any of these apart?” Of course, the answer was no. So he and I went on a mission to develop a brand that actually spoke to the community — one that never features a banker, never features a product, never features a rate, and never talks about how great we are.

The thought was simple is better. Everyone talks about being local and being a community bank, but you’ll never hear us say it. Our brand just shows it. That’s allowed us to have a lot of fun with the billboards and be opportunistic, taking advantage of what’s happening around the country, in the economy, or at the university. Every day, we try to bring a smile to somebody’s face. Life is hard and fast-paced, so getting people to read a bank ad and actually smile is really fulfilling.

You’re now Chair of the UMS Board of Directors, but you’ve been involved for many years. How have you seen UMS change and grow over that time?

Any organization that’s going to be successful has to keep evolving, and that involves some level of change. I think back to all the great work Ken Fischer did as the face and leader of UMS — an incredible spokesperson who created so much energy and excitement. Then came the transition to welcoming Matthew VanBesien from the New York Philharmonic, and Matthew’s ability to cultivate new relationships and push UMS into new avenues and new genres has taken things to a whole new level. He’s built a team that executes at an extremely high level. Neither Bank of Ann Arbor nor UMS can be run successfully by just one person. It takes a team that’s focused, aligned, and in sync, that gets out of bed every morning thinking about how to be more successful.

UMS has an incredibly strong foundation built over the years, but you can’t rely on the past. You’ve always got to have an eye to the future, and you’ve got to be willing to take risks. Not every risk pays off, but if you’re never taking one, you’re never really fulfilling the obligation of presenting the best. I could go on about the admiration and respect I have for this organization.

Tim Marshall with U-M President Domenico Grasso and UMS president Matthew VanBesien

Any favorite UMS performance memories you’d be willing to share?

Wow, that’s probably the hardest question — how do you pick one? One Yo-Yo Ma? One Wynton Marsalis? One New York Philharmonic? One Boz Scaggs — what a great show he put on last year at age 81. And now there’s the upcoming concert with Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. I think back to my growing-up years and songs like “The Way It Is,” “Mandolin Rain,” “Every Little Kiss,” “Look Out Any Window,” and “The Valley Road” — and then the evolution Bruce has had across his career, moving through folk, jazz, bluegrass, and rock, playing with the Grateful Dead for over 100 shows. He’s got that jam-band spirit, right alongside one of my all-time favorites, Dave Matthews Band, and Phish, and that whole culture that Bruce helped craft going back to the mid-80s.

That kind of genre-spanning curiosity is exactly what speaks to UMS. If we only focused on orchestral music, or choral music, or dance, it would be a much more narrowly defined institution — but it’s not. Introducing artists like Boz Scaggs to the lineup in 2025, and now Bruce Hornsby in 2026, is another example of UMS continuing to grow and bring in genres that resonate with people across Southeast Michigan.