Amazing Outside Directors 2023: Laura Boyd

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]

The 3-minute, fixed-rate loan

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]

Taking nothing for granted: Advice for generation next

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]

Outstanding Women 2022: Sherri Reagin

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]

Outstanding Women 2022: Mary Williams

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]

Outstanding Women 2022: Brenda Franke

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]

Wolters Kluwer’s Meirink drives transformation

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]

New Alerus CEO executing growth strategy

In Phoenix in the summer, you expect temperatures in the triple digits. But for Alerus, the Valley of the Sun isn’t just hot; it’s the current hotbed where it looks to grow its four business verticals — what CEO Katie Lorenson calls the bank’s “holistic” approach to banking. [Continue]