Minnesota banker works to increase board diversity

Across the banking industry, women make up a significant percentage of employees, but their numbers traditionally slim when you get to the board level. Since Kelly Skalicky took the helm at Stearns Bank, St. Cloud, Minn., this has changed. The Stearns Bank N.A., board is 57 percent female (four women; three men) and its five-person holding company board is 80 percent female.  [Continue]

Second-gen banker brings diverse legal background to banking

When Kelly Skalicky was in elementary school, she wanted to play basketball. But the town’s youth league was only open to boys. The restriction didn’t make sense to her. Why, she wondered, could the boys and girls play kickball together and have gym class together but only the boys had access to the league and the tournaments and the “cool” trophies? There was an inherent unfairness about the whole situation, which didn’t sit well with the scrappy fourth grader.  [Continue]

Kansas-based bank serves Missouri’s nascent cannabis industry

Kansas has historically been tough with legal cannabis penalties, and remains one of three states in the country without a legalized variety. Sale or production of cannabis means a possibile 17-year prison sentence and a half-million dollar fine. As of July 2019, Kansas residents are legally permitted to bring back low THC level cannabis oils from states where it’s legal and administer it. [Continue]

Tradition of digging in, plowing ahead

Enebak Construction Company started in 1905. Tip Enebak is a third generation leader, shepherding his sons as the fourth. He’s being recognized as one of BankBeat magazine’s 2021 Amazing Outside Directors. Tradition Capital Bank was founded in 2005, when Enebak, his son Jake, and his son-in-law, Erik Hendrickson, began to etch the blueprint of the de novo. [Continue]

‘All in’ is modus operandi for Bank Midwest board chair

From Brownie Scout on up, Becki Drahota has always put 110 percent into everything she’s done. “It’s evidently impossible for me to be part of an organization if I can’t be fully engaged in it,” said Drahota, founder of Mills Marketing and board chair of Spirit Lake, Iowa-based Bank Midwest. “I’m not good at sitting on the sidelines.” [Continue]

Vekich embraces reputation as ‘Mr. Fix-it’

Michael Vekich has become known among politicians and the press as the fix-it man, or the go-to guy. “I’ve been fixing organizations for a long time,” he said, whether it’s governmental, public, private companies or banks, as an accountant. The firm he bought in 1978 ultimately led him to practice in nine foreign countries. He’s being honored as one of BankBeat magazine’s 2021 Amazing Outside Directors. [Continue]

Fleck brings urban flair to rural bank

On the wall behind Fran Fleck’s home office desk in Des Moines, Iowa, hangs a quote by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg: “If a woman is short, bend down and listen to her.” At 4 feet 11 inches, Fleck jokes that when she started lobbying, she was six-one. “Being beaten down all those years, I just got shorter and shorter.”  [Continue]

New and existing home sales continue to decline

A 'SOLD' sign stands outside a house.

Existing home sales dropped 6.6 percent in February after two months of gains, according to the National Association of Realtors. New home sales dropped 18.2 percent in February to 775,000 from January’s revised rate of 948,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing development. [Continue]