The first time Kathy Torske applied for the president’s role at American Trust Center, Dickinson, N.D., she was 29 and had been with the company for only a few years. Although the board was impressed with her resume and performance with the company, they decided she needed a few more years to ripen. Torske had no hard feelings. [Continue]
In the 14 years since the Rowland family became majority owners of rural Missouri’s Garden City Bank, they’ve worked to transform it. The result is the strategically renamed Lead Bank, which has fintech collaborations, new branches in urban and suburban Kansas City, Mo., locations, and a way of doing business that fits its leadership’s cause-oriented worldview. [Continue]
The person best suited to lead a systemically important financial institution would likely fit a complex profile. But what of the community bank and its leadership needs? Should community bank boards be any less prescriptive when creating a profile for a next-generation leader? [Continue]
Jon-Myckle Price got into banking because of a pool. A lifelong swimmer, Price was writing a paper for a college economics class and chose to focus on his local public pool in Logansport, Ind., because it was on the brink of closing. The paper led to a job managing the pool after college, but it was while dropping off a deposit at a local bank that Price decided to apply for a branch manager opening. [Continue]
Since she began at Peoples Bank Midwest nearly 11 years ago, Megan Willcoxen has seized every opportunity to learn and serve the bank. Today, married and pregnant with her second child, she is a vice president of the $380 million Wisconsin-based bank, directing treasury management services at its Vadnais Heights, Minn., office and providing leadership for its three branches. [Continue]
With a high of 83 degrees, May 16 was a great day for Craig Madsen to get out of the office and into the field. Literally. Madsen is community president and senior lending officer at Bank Plus in Estherville, Iowa, and has been named a 2019 Rising Star in Banking by BankBeat magazine. [Continue]
Brian Wagner marked two major life changes as 2018 turned into 2019: He welcomed his third child in December and began his role as president of Flagship Bank in Wayzata, Minn. Between the two, he hasn’t gotten much sleep lately, but things are already off to a humming start as Wagner settles into the role. [Continue]
The sign above the door clearly communicates you are about to enter a bank, yet the printing on the front door to Bremer Bank’s southwest Minneapolis branch reads, “no cash on premises.” Cue the cognitive dissonance. [Continue]
At the end of 2018, Green Bay, Wis.-based Associated Bank announced it would acquire 32 Wisconsin branches of Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio. That group of offices holds $850 million in deposits and $134 million in loans, lending considerable oomph to Associated’s Wisconsin footprint. [Continue]
Community bank customers expect to be treated as individuals, not statistics. At the same time, marketing to customers “subjectively through personal stories instead of numbers clearly presents our dedication to our community,” explained Kristi Poling, marketing and creative services manager at Minnesota Lakes Bank, Delano, and its sister institution, Grand Rapids State Bank in Grand Rapids, Minn. [Continue]