2013 Rising Stars in Banking: Karen Brekke

Karen Brekke is the consensus builder that Frandsen Financial Corporation needed as it unified its 13 charters and 30 banking locations with different brands, processes and cultures into Frandsen Bank and Trust..Since sole owner Dennis Frandsen founded the corporation 31 years ago, Frandsen Financial has grown by adding bank after bank from throughout Minnesota and border communities in Wisconsin and North Dakota. For most of that time the company ran each bank separately, retaining a myriad of processes, structures and fee schedules. In 2008, the corporation had more than $1 billion in assets; management decided it was time to unify the banks under one banner.."We saw that as we became bigger, we would become very inefficient if we did not have cohesion in operations," said Chuck Mausbach, Brekke's manager and president of Frandsen Financial Corporation, which now has $1.5 billion in assets. "Karen was selected as the clear choice for the task.".By that point, management had taken notice of Brekke for some time..She had been in banking since she was a teenager. Growing up in Roseau, Minn., Brekke comes from a family of educators, but she never had a taste for it. "I liked accounting more," she said..Her first job was for Citizens State Bank in Roseau where she started as a teller when she was 16. The management team invested in Brekke, giving her experience in every department on the operations side of the bank. She continued to work there as she studied at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks until she graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and financial management in 1992..Brekke's first job out of school was with Arden Hills, Minn.-based Frandsen Financial. She was hired as a customer service representative at a second bank with the name Citizens State Bank. An entirely different bank than her high school employer, the East Grand Forks-based bank had been purchased by Frandsen a year earlier. After two months, she became the bank's operations officer, overseeing operations and internal audit. She became the bank's vice president and chief operating officer in 2002..By 2006, with Brekke's help, Frandsen Financial Corporation had consolidation its 13 charters down to six. The corporation split the banks into a north and south region, creating an operations coordinator for each region. Brekke was named coordinator for the northern region..After two years, Frandsen Financial was ready to unify its banks under one charter: Frandsen Bank and Trust. But the company wanted more for the combined bank than just an amalgamation of processes from each bank; it wanted the bank's practices to be best practices..For that task Brekke was named director of corporate operations. She and the corporate executive team conceived of "charter services," a department within the corporate office led by Brekke which would develop and test new processes in addition to acting as a resource for the subsidiary banks. Knowing staff already employed in the banks would have the best vantage point on the banks' operations, Brekke pulled together a team from the operations, loan operations, compliance, financial services, loss prevention and retail areas of the banks..The department became the go-to place for employees needing help and a catalyst for better processes within the company. "The diversity of the group kept us from using a one-size-fits-all style," Brekke said. "The approach also allowed us to retain and promote some very talented employees. Initially it was a tricky model for me to set up and manage as it was completely decentralized. However, the pros quickly outweighed the cons as the model proved to be very successful.".While Brekke is quick to credit the skill and support of her team, her co-workers recognize her achievements. "Karen's number one skill is her ability to create a team and get buy-in from people coming from different vantage points," Mausbach said. "She creates consensus on highly charged topics where there will be clear winners and losers. But she's not combative, she creates consensus.".One of Brekke's biggest challenges was wading through the fee structures and product offerings of so many different banks. For instance, when she started the banks had 45 different checking accounts, all with differing fee structures. "People get passionate about the product offering and the fee structure," Mausbach recalled. "Sales and service staff are directly affected by our choices on fee structure. They have to present it to the customer. Karen will remember important details from her days sitting in their seats. And she reaches out to them, calling them to make sure she understands how our decisions will affect them."."When she finished, the number of checking account products was down to eight," said Rich Hoban, CEO of Frandsen Financial Corporation. "Karen has proven to be very good at pulling the best practices out of each bank to the benefit of the rest of the company. If you talk to anyone in the organization, most people look at her ideas and ask 'why didn't we do this sooner?'".Brekke's combination of big picture thinking tempered by her attention to detail has earned respect across the company, so much so that the board of directors of Frandsen Bank and Trust recently elected her chairman of the board; she started April 1.Other 2013 Rising Stars in Banking include:Chris Conrad, First Bank & Trust, Sioux Falls, S.D.Ty Lucas, Nebraskaland National Bank, North Platte, Neb.James Klein, Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, Cedar Rapids, IowaKorey Schow, Bank of Keystone, Neb.Christie Obenauer, Union State Bank, Hazen, N.D.Jeff Gilbert, Frontenac Bank, St. Charles, Mo.Matthew Howrey, North Salem State Bank, North Salem, Ind.