Rising stars 2000

Northwestern Financial Review, Jun 17, 2000 by Bengtson, Tom, Olmsted, Monte

Young bankers don't let their lack of experience prevent them from making a difference

Editor's note: Northwestern Financial Review is proud to honor bankers in its third annual

Rising Star awards program. This edition honors four bankers under the age of 45, nominated by readers.

One banker from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Minnesota are featured here. Bankers from Iowa, Illinois, -Wisconsin and Nebraska will be featured in the July 22 edition of Northwestern Financial Review.

North Dakota's Petersen Embraces Leadership Challenges

New Town, N.D., only had to look within to find one of its newest and youngest leaders. So did the North Dakota Bankers Association. Both entities are betting on the same person.

Gary Petersen at 35 leads Lakeside State Bank in New Town, a city of 1,400 in north central North Dakota. A two-year member of New Town's city council and president of the area's economic development corporation, Petersen has emerged as a community leader.

As a member of the NDBA's board of directors and the state's banking board, Petersen is among the state's industry leaders as he holds down the chairmanship of NDBA s Native American Task Force. For Petersen, a second-generation banker, the leadership tag comes naturally.

"Every banker you talk to assumes a leadership role in his community. The reason you become an officer in a bank is because you have leadership capabilities and, certainly, the community looks to the local lender for leadership. You either accept that role or are thrust into it."

In 1997, Petersen became president of the $44 million Lakeside State Bank, succeeding his father, Darold, who remains the bank's chairman. The Petersen family has been associated with the New Town bank since 1964, when Darold Petersen began working there. Within a few years, the elder Petersen gained controlling ownership of the bank.

The Petersen family opened a second bank in 1982 in nearby Watford City. Known as McKenzie County Bank, the $26 million institution is led by president Scott Swenson, who is married to Gary Petersen's sister, Jane. Petersen admitted that his father's career influenced him, but he alone made the decision to join the family business.

"My parents gave us a lot of latitude in deciding what we wanted to do. There was no pressure to become a banker. It's something I've had a lot of interest and some talent in," Petersen said.

His high school days marked Petersen's foray into banking as he worked in bookkeeping. The duties grew. "I washed the windows more times than I can count, and I still do that," Petersen said.

Banking was always in the back of Petersen's mind. After graduating from the University of North Dakota with a business degree in 1987, Petersen worked for three years as an FDIC bank examiner out of that agency's Grand Forks office. But the lure of law school tugged at Petersen, who as a teenager often pondered what life would be like as a lawyer. So he stayed in Grand Forks and earned his law degree from the University of North Dakota.

The idea of practicing law appealed to Petersen, but not as much as returning to his hometown to work at the family's bank. "I weighed a lot of things-family wife and kids-and what I wanted the future to be. I wanted to be in banking and couldn't think of a better way to do that than to come home and get into the family business."

So much for serving as a general practice attorney, but Petersen does not regret his choice in securing a law degree. "The law comes in handy in just about everything these days. In banking, more and more you need that kind of education; not so much to practice [law], but to know when you need a lawyer," he said with a laugh.

Soon after taking the bar exam in 1993, Petersen returned to New Town, a community that is dependent on the farm economy. Producers in the area primarily grow durum wheat, canola, and edible beans.

New Town lies near Lake Sakakawea, the country's third-largest man-made reservoir created in 1954 by the construction of the Garrison Dam. Some of the state's best recreational opportunities such as fishing, hunting and camping can be found in the area.

The city also is located along the edge of the Fort Berthold Reservation-home of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes, a number of whom are customers at Lakeside State Bank. The tribes operate under a joint government known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, and its tribal agency is in New Town.

Petersen's experience working with the tribes led to his chairmanship of NDBA's Native American Task Force-a group developed to improve banking and lending relationships on reservations. Currently, the task force is studying a government lending program that would offer mortgages on reservationssomething that has been historically difficult because of the unique nature of land titles on tribal lands.

"The creation of the task force was in recognition that we needed to improve communication and banking relationships [with American Indians] on a statewide level. Bringing together bankers and tribal leaders can help expand lending and other banking services on other reservations," Petersen said.