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Who's who: Sandra Hartfield

Sandra Hartfield recognizes an opportunity when she sees it. That ability, combined with other skills, has helped her make Palm Desert National Bank the nation's largest supplier of ATM vault cash.

October 28, 2003

Sandra Hartfield recognizes an opportunity when she sees it.

When her employer, California's Palm Desert National Bank (PDNB), deployed its first few non-branch ATMs, Hartfield was quick to identify the off-premise industry's need for vault cash.

Under her guidance, PDNB became one of the nation's first suppliers of ATM vault cash. Today the bank owns a commanding share of that market, supplying more than 11,000 machines.

Sandra Hartfield

The electronic banking division, led by Hartfield, accounts for about half of the $230 million financial institution's overall business, said Kevin McGuire, PDNB's chief executive, who lauded her "ability to take charge and get things done."

In addition to vault cash, Hartfield's division -- the bank's largest with about 75 employees in both California and Louisiana -- also offers ATM cash management, network sponsorship and ACH services, primarily to independent deployers.

"Sandra is the perfect example of an executive who can make a decision quickly. She never waits too long and loses an opportunity because of it," said Eric Park, chief executive of transaction processor Innobeta Systems, which provides processing for PDNB's ATMs and uses PDNB's vault cash services for its other processing clients.

"I'm not afraid to take opportunities when they're presented to me," Hartfield said. "The Lord has really led my life and put me in situations where I needed to be."

A Texas native, Hartfield studied home economics before leaving college in her third year to get married. She had a knack for numbers, but guidance counselors encouraged her to pursue an education degree -- a common fate for women in the late 1960s, she said.

Change of plan

In need of a job, Hartfield applied to Bank of America through an employment agency and won a spot in the bank's customer service department. Though she had never balanced a checking account, Hartfield learned quickly and began taking finance courses. She discovered she had an affinity for operations. 

When she moved to southern California in the '70s, she found work as a chief financial officer for American Merchant Bank in Orange County. When that bank was acquired, Hartfield began consulting and helping other institutions recruit CFOs in the late '80s.

PDNB was a consulting client. After four months, the bank asked Hartfield to accept the CFO slot. Her opportunity radar went off.

"When I walked in the door, it was just like walking home," she said.

McGuire agreed that he and other executives and board members felt a nearly instant rapport with Hartfield. "She's very innovative and forward thinking, which was just what we needed," he said.

ATM opportunity

With some amusement, Hartfield recalled an area mall asking PDNB to install several ATMs after another bank pulled out of the location; a local casino made a similar request. "We turned them down but they kept coming back. We got some documentation showing we could surcharge and finally put in some ATMs," she said.

Shortly after PDNB's somewhat reluctant entry into off-premise ATMs in 1994, another deployer sought PDNB's assistance with vault cash and Hartfield realized that opportunity was beckoning again. "We missed the boat but not the ship," she said.

Hartfield quickly realized that the common practice of tracking ATM cash activity on Excel spreadsheets was not an effective way of managing the money. So in 1995, she began visiting facilities that had developed cash management software.

The round of visits ultimately led PDNB to develop its own software called Trakker, which today is used by more than 100 clients. Hartfield recognized yet another opportunity when American Security Bank, one of the facilities she had visited, was purchased by another institution.

She recruited a number of American Security's employees following that acquisition. "I think we had seven people at the time and they had nine. So I doubled my opportunity when I hired them," she said. "They knew how to order cash, how to balance and reconcile, how to settle Reg E claims. It helped us broaden our geography and grow at a faster pace."

Still looking for opportunity

PDNB recently partnered with Pacific Coast Bankers' Bancshares to create a program called ATM Cash Advantage, which allows independent banks to advance up to $400 million in currency to ISO-managed ATMs. In its first few months, the program has attracted about a dozen financial institutions, Hartfield said.

PDNB's Trakker software offers program participants near real-time reconciliation of ATMs, armored carriers and bank vaults to help them better track how their cash is being used.

Innobeta's Park credits PDNB's appeal to retail ATM deployers largely to Hartfield's obvious understanding of the business -- a factor he said is lacking at many other financial institutions.

"She really cares about the business and the people behind it," he said, noting that she helped him learn the ropes when he headed Money Marketing, a New Jersey ISO. "We did not even know what sponsorship was. Even today, there are not many ISOs with sponsorship. More of them should look into it."

Park, who serves on the Electronic Funds Transfer Association's board of directors with Hartfield, also values her as a friend. "We usually get together for dinner when the board meets. She's a very fun-loving person, and she cares what people are going through. She's not all business," he said.

Indeed, despite her career demands, the perpetually tan Hartfield takes full advantage of her southern California surroundings, which she likens to "living in paradise," by golfing with her husband John and playing in the swimming pool with her nine grandchildren.

She also makes time to serve as a director of her church, Desert Springs Christian. She has served on the board of several organizations, including the Foundation for the Retarded and the Joslyn Senior Center.