2025 BankBeat Rising Stars in Banking: Josh Dreher

Josh Dreher uses 20 years of experience to build community at Bank of HaysJosh Dreher did not picture himself being a banker. In high school, he thought he would be an accountant. But in college, he interviewed for a job as a teller at Bank of Hays, Kan., and never looked back..“I’ve always been a person who doesn’t like to sit still,” he said. “When the drive-up was slow, I always asked for things to do. They’d give me stuff from the loan department to file and I kind of got my feet wet a little bit … What I like about banking is that it’s a mix. Part of the time I’m working with numbers, but most of the time I’m working with people. It’s a relationship business and that’s what I enjoy the most.”Dreher grew up in Hays, which has more than 21,000 people. Now, after 20 years at the bank, he is a senior vice president. For Bank of Hays CEO Randy Walker, it has been exciting to watch his tenure.“You can tell a lot by watching who people go to when they have a question and a lot of the younger people gravitate toward Josh if they have a question or want to know how to get something done,” Walker said. “He’s really turned into a natural leader just by being open.” Around the office, Dreher is known for his work with the community. Darla Braun, senior vice president and compliance officer for the bank, helped hire Dreher in 2006. She said he has pulled many customers into the bank’s portfolio.For his work both at the bank and in the community, Dreher is being recognized as a 2025 selection in BankBeat magazine’s annual Rising Star honors. “They [the community] trust him and they want to do business with him and the people that he surrounds himself with,” Braun said. “His customer base here is the largest of all of our officers.” The community aspect of banking was essential to Dreher when he chose to move from a teller to a commercial loan officer when he graduated college in 2009. Now, he continues to work with the bank’s Small Business Administration loan program.In 2020, Dreher was a key member of the bank in making sure Hays’s businesses were able to make ends meet with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). “The future for most small businesses was really up in the air and when the PPP loans were announced, Josh was one of the people who was down here at the bank until 2, 3, 4 o’clock processing loans for customers,” Walker said. “He was trying to help them get funding so that their future was maybe a little less uncertain.”Walker said this wasn’t a one-time occurrence; Dreher worked many late nights to process applications, knowing the SBA website would have less traffic at night. Dreher said the entire bank staff knew they could not log out at 5 p.m. because they would risk losing funds. “We earned a lot of credibility and a lot of people liked that we were at the forefront of this,” he said. “We had a lot of SBA experience prior to that, and the PPP loan program used the SBA platform. We had a lot of knowledge, so we were able to move really quickly.”Dreher said the bank continues to benefit from the forward-thinking skills learned during the pandemic. Outside of the office, Dreher volunteers his time for several organizations. He currently serves as board chairperson for the Heartland Community Foundation. There, Dreher focuses his time on investing in the northwestern Kansas community.“I feel like we have a responsibility to help the community out when we can,” Dreher said.Braun said Dreher always sees the bigger picture, regardless of whether he’s working in the community, at the Bank of Hays, or in his personal life. It’s an attribute that helps strengthen the bank overall, she said. “He seeks out those opportunities to try to gain additional insights and additional contacts so he can carry it forward,” Braun said.As the bank continues to grow and change, Dreher said he hopes to continue to be a leader. He graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in August 2024. He plans to use his skills from the program to become a more well-rounded bank officer and take on more responsibilities. “My desire for the bank to succeed is, at the end of the day, what motivates me,” Dreher said. I want to make sure we’re taking care of the customers who we have in our community … I want to make sure that 20 years from now, we’re in an even better position than we are now, and I look forward to being a part of leading the bank in the future, however that may look.”