35 Years
Gregory Filip SVP & Chief Information Officer
While attending Pace University in 1990, Gregory Filip joined Maspeth Federal as a Nighttime Teller, a popular job for students—and the perfect job for Greg, having grown up just 15 minutes away. In the years that followed, he worked in the Loan Review, Compliance and Accounting departments. “Stealing everyone’s knowledge—that was my best talent,” he recalls. “I was lucky. I was a curious person. I’d jump from department to department, trying to find the smartest person in the room and befriend them. I was very good at that.” Among those people were the late Bruce Sapienza and Chief Financial Officer Erwin Gerbavsits, Greg’s go-to for advice. Greg, in fact, owes his career to mentorship. Before it had an IT department, the bank relied on consultants working with employees like Greg, who had a burgeoning interest in the subject. By the time he earned his master’s from Hofstra University in 1997, Greg was interviewing elsewhere. But an offer to found the bank’s IT department set him on track for a 35-year rise to Chief Information Officer. “The internet was exploding. It was an exciting area, and the bank was so far behind. It was a great opportunity to learn from the bottom.” Over time, he grew a department of one into four divisions. Despite guiding MFS through the internet era, Y2K, and a multiyear core conversion that took place over a pandemic, Greg struggles to underscore his achievements. “It’s a different world now in technology: Expectations are so high that when you pull off a huge accomplishment, people shrug it off. You’re expected to be great. ‘My iPhone’s cooler than your core banking system.’” Today, Greg is working on the bank’s next area of adoption: AI. But don’t expect a chatbot any time soon. “Most technology is a solution in search of a problem. Most people start with the technology, but you have to identify a problem first. People still matter. Strategy still matters. You have to sit down and say, ‘Is it going to fit?’ I look at the entire bank—it’s gotta be safe and inclusive for the entire bank.” He cites Maspeth Federal’s unique values and culture as guardrails of decision-making. “The tools have changed, the technology has changed, but the way we treat our customers—that has stayed the same.” On legacy, he observes, “You want to leave the bank better off than when you joined. I have four divisions: My job is to develop those people. It’ll be great knowing when I leave, everything’s going to work. You’re passing the torch. That’s my main job in the future: Keep the bank moving forward and make sure the next generation is ready.” Pressing pause on CIO life, Greg reflects on simpler times. “The best times were before I became a boss,” he laughs, recalling moments joking with coworkers in the drive-up window. When one particularly verbose customer, who’d often sidle up to the microphone for lengthy chats, locked herself out of her car one day, the Tellers giggled watching their supervisor try to break into the vehicle with a coat hanger. Suddenly, an ”Ah-HA” moment washed over his face. “He reaches for the back door—which was unlocked the entire time,” Greg recounts. “We erupted laughing.”
Greg now lives in Bayside with wife, his 7-year-old daughter and his 9-year-old son, who chides his father for not knowing enough about computers. “We’re all grooming the next version of ourselves,” he says. “Golf has become my passion. If I can be on the golf course, I’ll always be on the golf course.”
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