Profiles

Accountant reflects on 30 years of service to community bankers

If you have purchased or sold a bank, you may have come into contact with Don Johnson, a partner at the Eide Bailly accounting and consulting firm. From his Minneapolis office, Johnson has helped many bankers across the Upper Midwest consider some of the most significant decisions a banker makes in his or her career: should we buy a bank, sell a branch, relocate a charter, create a holding company, merge with another financial institution? [Continue]

Michael Bell preaches acquisition ecumenism

Michael Bell, a 40-year-old lawyer from Michigan is confident as hell about his ability to bring credit union cash to just about any purchase or acquisition you can imagine that doesn’t involve stock or a large deferred tax asset. And he’s clear about what adding a credit union to the bidding field will do to the selling price. “If a bank can pay 1.5 times book value and that’s the value, a credit union can pay 1.7 times book value.” [Continue]

Getting paid to create (and have) fun

Every bank has a CFO, but it’s likely that only one has a CFnO – a chief fun officer. That’s Sarah Trapp’s title at First National Bank of Syracuse, Kan., and, yes, her job is all about fun — surprising employees with free lunches, holding company-wide massage days, or recruiting them to put on costumes for skits that reinforce best practices. [Continue]

Strategic thinker models industry leadership

Brenda Johnson is a big fan of “blue sky” discussions, where a group throws off the constraints of what is known in order to imagine their way toward something new. It’s an exercise in creative ideation, and whether she’s leading these discussions on behalf of Charter Bankshares, where she’s been chair of the board for five years. [Continue]