Andersen juggles work, family to grow hometown bank in Nebraska

Northwestern Financial Review, Nov 18, 2000 by Bengtson, Tom

Leslie Andersen, president and CEO of the Bank of Bennington, Neb., proves that a little encouragement can go a long way. Andersen, a fourth-generation banker in a $40 million institution northwest of Omaha, remembers an important conversation with her grandfather, Harold Roe. "He was president of the bank," Andersen recounted. "We were in this office, which is now my office. He told me when I was 13 or 14 years old that I could do whatever I wanted to do, that I could become anything I wanted to become. That was a pretty powerful thing for a man of his age to be telling a young woman."

And ultimately, Andersen wanted to carry on the family legacy. She became president of the bank shortly after rejoining the institution in 1992. In eight years, she has led the bank through a transformation from a $17 million ag bank with nine employees to a suburban bank with 13 employees handling mostly real estate and small business loans. Bennington is a bedroom community in Douglas County where most residents drive to jobs in Omaha. "Everyone drives by a branch of one of our competitors," Andersen noted. She said within five miles of the bank there are several competitors. How does she distinguish herself from the others? The bank offers an unsurpassed level of personal service. Customers feel like family, especially if they visit Andersen's office. There they will find a portable crib where she keeps her daughter Katherine, born Sept. 11. Employees and even customers play with the baby. If Katherine gets fussy while mom is taking a phone call, employees commonly whisk the child out of the office where a little crying will be less disruptive. Andersen was back on the job only a week after delivering her third child, and she said the support she has received from employees and customers for the unconventional child-care arrangement has been wonderful. Andersen, who is president-elect of the Nebraska Bankers Association, has brought Katherine along on industry meetings with NBA leadership, Federal Reserve officers and even elected officials.

When Andersen becomes NBA president in May, she will be the association's first third-generation leader. Her grandfather was NBA president in 1958, and her father, Jerry Roe, was association president in 1980. She will become the association's second female president. As she travels around the state, Andersen said she is learning a lot from current NBA president, Lisco State Bank's Tom Olson, a nationally-- respected dean of the industry.

Andersen has been around the bank since she was a kid, when she'd empty wastebaskets and run discarded paper through the shredder. While attending college in Lincoln, Neb., she worked at National Bank of Commerce, (now part of Wells Fargo & Co.). She mastered the intricacies of credit analysis so thoroughly that when she took a job at Sovran Bank (now part of Bank of America) in northern Virginia upon graduation, they started her out as a lender. Commercial real estate was her specialty, which turned out to be a tough line of business in 1990. Depressed real estate prices put pressure on loans, but Andersen said the experience taught her a lot about working with people through difficult situations.

By the summer of 1992, her husband, David, had completed a tour of military duty flying F-14 fighter planes, and the pair was looking for a place to settle down. Andersen called her father about rejoining the family bank.

"Dad tried to talk me out of it," Andersen explained. "If I was going to come back to the bank, he wanted to make sure it was something I truly wanted to do, not something I was doing out of any sense of obligation toward the family."

Andersen was immediately able to leverage her commercial real estate lending experience into new business in Bennington, a community of 1,500 people. Although she was new in a leadership position at the bank, staff supported her and the bank began to grow. Loan demand proved strong, and Andersen added two loan officers and two loan processors. During the last several years, the bank has averaged 18 percent growth. Today, the bank is on the verge of introducing Internet banking, and is considering opening its first branch.

Andersen, who said she has never run up against the proverbial "glass ceiling," said the keys to success include a willingness to work as a team player. "You need to be ready to learn from people at any level in the organization," she said. "Be flexible and keep your door open."

By Tom Bengtson