When Rob Thompson sits down at his desk on Monday, the newly appointed Ironton finance director will be entering a whole new world.

But, considering his career path, something new should be practically old hat for the 51-year-old.

In 1984 the Flatwoods, Ky., resident started in an entry-level position at Community Trust Bank. After 10 years, he had become vice president of the business loan department.

Thompson then moved on to Ironton’s Star Bank, where he worked with clients throughout southeastern Ohio.

By that time, friends had begun to try to woo him out of the banking world and into becoming a financial adviser and stockbroker, something he was hesitant about at first.

“I had kind of resisted it, but after thinking about it, and talking with my wife about it, I decided to take a chance with it,” Thompson said.

He soon began the rigorous training required to be in the securities in the World Trade Center, where he graduated in the top of his class. Afterwards, he took a job with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

At first, Thompson thought he had found the right path, until the markets began to take a downturn, and he was forced to make a choice between doing right by his customers, and doing right by himself.

“If you don’t invest their money, you don’t make any money,” Thompson said. “I didn’t want to do anything unethical so I wouldn’t invest their money, and it made it very difficult to make a living.”

Unwilling to sacrifice his ethics, Thompson began his own mail-order business three years ago that’s now flourishing.

At the last meeting of the Ironton City Council, it was decided that Thompson would take on a new challenge when he was named the city’s new finance director.

While it will be a change of pace for the entrepreneur to suddenly have seven bosses (or more than 11,300 if you count the citizens), he says that although he’s been a self-starter, he hasn’t been an island.

“I’ve always been a team player in working with others,” Thompson said. “I don’t know anyone that doesn’t answer to somebody else, no matter what. This will be a new phase in my life, but I’m fully willing.”

Thompson admits that he has little experience in the municipal world, but he seems to have few concerns about heading up the finances of a city that has had its share of economic problems.

“Nobody taught me how to be a banker, nobody taught me how to be a financial adviser and I don’t expect anyone to teach me how to be a finance director,” Thompson said. “It comes through determination, hard work and a desire to give 100 percent. I know it won’t be easy; it’s going to be hard, but I’m willing to give it all the effort that it’s going to take.”

Thompson will learn exactly what it takes when he begins heading up the finance office on Monday.