Michael Felts, a businessman who until recently operated a string of convenience stores across rural Kansas, had already served on the board of Citizens Bank of Kansas for a decade when the unthinkable happened: The man who’d recruited him, longtime owner and Board Chair Max Deterding, died unexpectedly. [Continue]
Laura Boyd, founder and CEO of Leadership Delta, considers herself blessed to sit on the board of St. Paul, Minn.-based BankCherokee alongside people she dubs “brilliant souls.” Boyd joined the board of the 115-year-old bank just four years ago (though time might be measured differently when one factors in a global pandemic). [Continue]
Buy Now, Pay Later,” that point-of-sale tool consumers are increasingly using to break purchases into bite-sized payments, may be the flavor of the month to some, but it doesn’t whet Greg Ohlendorf’s appetite. [Continue]
Business succession consultants rarely work with families unless the senior generation controlling the business commits to a transition. “I spend a lot of time working with the younger generation trying to effectuate change, and it’s hard,” said Larry Hause, principal of Hause Family Transitions. [Continue]
Within families that own banks, there can be a disconnect between parents who control the bank and children in line to take their place. The work of family-owned banks across the Upper Midwest and the Prairie Family Business Association proves that those hurdles can be overcome. [Continue]
Growing up, Sherri Reagin saw firsthand what it meant to live a life in service to others. The preeminent example was set by her father, whom she described as “a good old-fashioned country doctor.” [Continue]
Growing up in a large family instilled in Mary Williams a great sense of responsibility. As the third-born of 12 children raised on a Winsted, Minn., farm, “we took care of our own,” Williams explained. [Continue]
There was a time when the only thing Brenda Franke knew about a loan was “how to make a payment on one,” she laughed. The affable vice president and Eden Prairie, Minn., branch manager for $390 million Star Bank has spent most of her 25-year career working in the operations side of a bank. [Continue]
Great moments in a career are often forged under pressure. Consider the effort by the team at Wolters Kluwer to scale its SBA lending solution that had for years been used by banks to process about a dozen 7(a) loans per day to accommodate the PPP deluge. [Continue]
If you’ve been out to dinner this summer, you’ve no doubt been waitlisted at a restaurant that had plenty of open tables but not enough servers. Perhaps you’ve had a recent flight canceled for lack of a crew. [Continue]