Richard Green, the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and Owner of Firstrust Bank, has been named one of the 150 Most Influential Philadelphians by Philadelphia magazine.

Green is the only commercial banker to make the list. He and the other Philadelphians “who are doing amazing things in their field, for our city and in the community,” are featured in the November issue of the magazine, which is now on newsstands.

Green is the grandson of Samuel Green, who founded Firstrust Bank in 1934 in South Philadelphia, at the height of the Great Depression. The bank’s assets have since grown to $5.2 billion, and it is considered one of the strongest, best capitalized banks in the country.

“We believe in cultivating prosperity for our customers, for our communities, and for our employees,” said Richard Green. “Watching businesses grow and flourish, watching people grow and flourish and being able to contribute meaningfully to their families, to their communities, is something that has always excited me about banking and is why I love being in this business.”

Green joined Firstrust in 1978 as General Counsel and became the third generation of his family to lead the bank, having served as CEO from 1995 to 2022. During his leadership, a span that included the Great Recession and a global pandemic, Firstrust became national in capability, technology and innovation, all while remaining local and personal in its service to its customers.

He remains Firstrust’s sole owner and represents a legacy of stability and strength.

“Richard has made an indelible mark on the bank and on the Greater Philadelphia community,” said Tim Abell, Firstrust’s current CEO and President who joined the bank in 2004 and succeeded Green at the start of this year. “I’ve had a long relationship with Richard and really respect and admire the way he embodies the values that I think his grandfather and father instilled in him.”

Green said that three things — confidence, consistency, and trust — have been the catalyst for Firstrust’s growth throughout the years.

“Banking is a business built on trust,” he said. “If you have the confidence in someone, that builds that trust and creates the bonds that make working partnerships so effective as people try to plan their financial future.”

Green, who graduated high school from The Haverford School, earned his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also attended SMU’s and Penn’s law schools.

In 2015, Green was named a Most Admired CEO by the Philadelphia Business Journal, and two years later, he was selected as Drexel LeBow’s Business Leader of the Year. In 2022, Gov. Josh Shapiro named him to his transition team for financial services.

Green currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and on the Executive Board of Federation Housing, Inc., which serves elderly, lower-income residents in the region. He also serves as Trustee for the Green Family Foundation, which was founded in 2005 and named in honor of his parents Daniel and Florence Green. The foundation invests in organizations that possess capable and courageous leadership, innovative approaches to addressing social problems and injustices, and a fierce commitment to making a substantial impact.

“The foundation has a fundamental belief in meeting basic human needs, particularly around anti-gun violence, food insecurity, climate change, low-income housing, education, and healthcare,” said Green.

In 2020, Firstrust became The Official Bank of the Philadelphia Eagles. As a minority owner of the NFL franchise since 1994, Green recently shared — during an interview with SportsRadio 94WIP — this sentimentality that he felt when the Birds won Super Bowl LII in 2018.

“I had the opportunity to ride on the float for the Super Bowl with my son,” he said. “As we’re coming up Broad Street, I’m pointing out where my grandfather started our bank. I’m wondering what my grandfather would think about the fact that his grandson and great-grandson are riding on a float in a championship parade. It was quite a moment.”

Learn more about Firstrust Bank and how it is helping people and businesses achieve success in the very region it calls home.