2017: Tom Campbell

Tom Campbell grew up looking across the road at his neighbors' farms, envious of their new, sleek equipment. The visions of the shiny John Deere motivated Campbell and his brothers to start their own farm and not even consider letting off the gas pedal until they had their own state of the art machinery..By now, Campbell Farms not only has that kind of farm equipment, but it also reaches to a trucking company and other ventures. The odds are, none of it would have happened if not for a community bank in 1977.."The line I use is, we got a small loan but a big prayer," Campbell said. "We bought a full line of potato equipment, which we look back on now as pretty much junk. We had to become mechanics, because it was always broken…."You can't do that nowadays. Starting a business from scratch without really knowing anything, going to a banker saying, 'we want to buy a used line of equipment and go into an industry we know nothing about.' We had a local banker who knew our work ethic and our desire.".Thus, it not only makes sense but is also fitting that Campbell serves as chairman of the Choice Financial Holding Company and sits on the bank's board of directors in Fargo, N.D.."He's obviously been one of my most involved directors. From a strategic standpoint, he's along for the ride, especially on those bigger decisions," said Choice Financial President Brian Johnson..Campbell originally got involved in banking when a friend approached him in 1996 about buying a bank. Along with a third partner, they bought the $17 million bank and moved the charter to West Fargo, N.D. They may have been heavily leveraged, but before too long they had doubled the bank's assets and brought in customers as shareholders..Much like those neighbors with the smooth running tractors, Campbell looked at the bankers in his market and set to measuring up to those standards.."We always had our eyes on some of the big bankers, independent banks that were so successful," he said. "We wanted to be like that when we grew up.".That one charter — First Capital Bank, originally of Goodrich, N.D. — and another Campbell had added to his portfolio — Citizens State Bank, which he and his partners moved from Petersburg to Grafton, N.D. — eventually merged with two others in 2001 to form Choice Financial. As Choice has expanded, Campbell's business experience has proven invaluable, in more ways than weighing the risks and rewards of potential loans.."Just as Choice has grown, we are able to maintain our family culture and our people-first culture, the dynamics of being a bigger operating organization," Johnson said. "You have to have structure. Campbell brings great experience and guidance on that end, having expanded his own businesses over the years.".Now, Campbell is the community banker taking a look at farmers' loans. He doubts he would have given himself that $9,000 loan 40 years ago, but that may be as much a sign of the times as a sign of his lack of collateral.."We are deciding on bank loans for bigger farmers," he said. "I'm thinking back to my younger days, a farmer without much equipment, and now I'm deciding if we should support a loan for $3 million to $4 million for farmer XYZ. Who am I?".If only those were the biggest decisions on Campbell's plate. In his second term as a North Dakota State Senator, Campbell does not expect to hold that seat much longer. He considered a run for governor this last election cycle, although he acknowledges that may have largely been a strategy to raise his profile before the 2018 elections. He said he plans to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate — whichever seat Rep. Kevin Cramer does not seek.."Hopefully I'll be successful in 2018," he said. "If I'm not, I'll try again. We've tried businesses we've failed at, too. That's part of life."