From the same office her grandmother once occupied, Jacqueline Ruge-Perkins, president and CEO of First State Bank of Porter, Ind., embodies the spirit of the bank’s one-time matriarch, leading with the belief that what’s good for the community is good for the $160 million bank.
Ruge-Perkins was an infant when fate altered her and her grandmother’s trajectory. In 1967, Ruge-Perkins’ grandfather, Mox Ruge, died unexpectedly. A few years earlier, Mox had gained controlling interest in the First State Bank of Porter, a community-focused institution serving towns that dot Lake Michigan’s scenic and sandy southern shore. “He bought the shares as an investment,” said Ruge-Perkins, a 2024 BankBeat “Outstanding Woman in Banking.”
After her grandfather’s death, the bank and its fortunes fell to her grandmother, Ann. “Imagine how a woman in the 1960s, running a bank, would be perceived?” Ruge-Perkins asked. Women who work in finance can be acutely sensitive to the challenges faced by their forebears. Consider: It was 1974’s Equal Credit Opportunity Act that would have guaranteed Ann Ruge, a mother of four, the legal right to obtain a loan or a credit card in her own name. Yet there she was, seven years earlier, the majority owner of a bank. “They had to come up with a plan,” said Ruge-Perkins of her grandmother and her uncle, Jim, the only other member of her family who showed any interest in running a bank in those days.
The obstacles her grandmother surmounted continue to inform Ruge-Perkins, who spent college summers at the bank in the late 1980s, then stayed to master increasingly challenging roles, including serving on the board starting at age 27. A turning point for Ruge-Perkins came as she pursued studies at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I really recognized the career side of banking,” she said. “It wasn’t just the job I had envisioned up to that point. It could be something bigger.”
Ruge-Perkins was named president and CEO in 2019. She also claimed a key role in helping protect a generation of her region’s school children by bringing a program called Body Safety to the Duneland Schools Corporation through a partnership between the Duneland Exchange Club and the Michigan City, Ind.-based nonprofit Dunebrook. Both groups conduct outreach focused on helping children, and Ruge-Perkins was instrumental in getting the Exchange Club to back the program, bringing it into the schools.
Body Safety is designed to educate children on what sexual abuse is using proper terminology and anatomically correct dolls. It is designed to empower children to tell someone they trust if they are experiencing abuse. Indiana is No. 11 nationally for incidences of child abuse.
“The program was developed by an Indianapolis police officer who discovered how difficult it was to prosecute abuse cases because children didn’t have the right words for what was happening to them,” Ruge-Perkins explained. “The program is presented every year and we’ve actually had some cases reported as a result.”
Getting, and keeping, the program in the schools is an accomplishment for which Ruge-Perkins takes great pride.
Her model of activism trickles down to her banking team, which recently instituted “Casual for a Cause,” a quarterly community outreach program they self-fund by paying for the privilege of wearing jeans to work on Fridays. “They pick the cause,” Ruge-Perkins said. Last quarter, the food pantry benefitted; next quarter funds will go to “Free the Girls,” an organization that raises awareness about the scourge of human trafficking.
Ruge-Perkins’ empathy also manifests as she’s led the bank’s growth, which now encompasses three offices and 31 employees. The bank and its communities benefit from tourism to the Indiana Dunes National Park, along with eastward expansion from greater Chicago. Its motto is “Friendly Banking Built on Trust” and Ruge-Perkins is adamant that First State Bank of Porter offers all the benefits of larger competitors, but in a personalized way that resonates. Though friendliness is delivered to all, Ruge-Perkins recognizes that some customers might be especially appreciative: “Maybe we look at women-led businesses and organizations differently, maybe it’s because of that perspective. It’s not something we can measure, but it’s a strength.”
Taking stock of the ways she’s been influenced by her late grandmother, Ruge-Perkins said: “She was very independent. She was classy. She was wise. She respected people, everybody from the housekeeper to other bank presidents. I hope I have gained some of that wisdom from her.”
Among her many notable accomplishments, writes Evan Hoffmeyer of the Indiana Bankers Association, is Ruge-Perkins’ ability to lead her bank through milestones such as CECL adoption and a remodel and rebranding, while maintaining an equity capital to total assets ratio of 12.72 percent. By comparison, the average in Indiana for banks in the same asset class is 8.69 percent.
Ruge-Perkins attributes the bank’s strong capital position to the examples set by her grandmother and her uncle, who reinvested earnings. “It was their philosophy,” she explained. “Strong capital was just a priority. We remain conservative in our dividend payouts to strengthen our capital, continuing to recognize the importance of the bank to the community and the employees.”
