2012 Outstanding Women in Banking: Julie Sands Causey

Julie Sands Causey never thought she would end up guiding her family's bank through an acquisition. As family members increased in age, Causey found a way to transition the bank's 77-year family ownership while preserving the bank's vision for decades to come..Causey's grandfather, Arthur William Sands, was a bank examiner in the midst of the Great Depression. A farm boy from Alvarado, Minn., with an eighth-grade education, Sands seized on opportunity and purchased the troubled Western State Bank of St. Paul, Minn., with help from his family and friends in 1935..Since the beginning, the Sands' family vision has been to create a Main Street bank like Arthur had in his hometown, only this bank would serve the inner-city areas of the Twin Cities along University Avenue. The family has continued the mission to this day, providing loans to all kinds of borrowers and even start-up capital to an organization called the Neighborhood Development Center, an economic development organization that provides training and technical assistance to entrepreneurs..Years ago, Causey wasn't interested in this mission when she graduated from high school. "I never planned to join the family bank," she said..She left the Midwest to study economics at Colby College in Maine in 1981. Afterwards, she chose consulting as her career. Spending two years with Deloitte in Washington D.C., she obtained an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. She spent the next decade in consulting work and eventually helped found a Minneapolis-based consulting firm, a project that brought her back to Minnesota in 1995..Near family again, Causey didn't stay away from the bank for long. While she had her own business to run, she joined the board in 1999 to represent the third generation. Still, she only committed to less than 10 meetings a year. But over time she was drawn in and became the first female chairman in 2004..What drew her in? It was Western Bank's mission to serve small businesses and nonprofits, many of them African American entrepreneurs and immigrants. Causey found the bank's work too gratifying to pass-up. "We are very much a small business bank. It's been on University Avenue for ninety years; I believe opportunities are created by keeping urban economies healthy," she said. "I have more impact on actual businesses at [Western Bank]. I get up every morning of my life to try to help businesses grow and prosper.".Then, in 2011, the family was ready for the bank to change ownership. Western Bank had always been strong with tier-one risk-based capital of nearly 17 percent and return on equity nearing 14 percent. But Arthur Sands had died in 1982, and Bill Sands, the second generation and Causey's uncle, was ready to fully retire..The family, however, wasn't going to sell to just anyone. It wanted new ownership that would allow the bank to continue its mission in the Twin Cities, one that saw the value in Causey's current team and its ability to grow the bank. "I wanted a purchaser who would leave the bank as it is," Causey said..The family found that purchaser in Omaha, Neb.-based American National Corp. "They love the way Western Bank is, and believe its current structure and leadership will drive growth," she said..The bank closed the sale in September. "Julie has led a complex transaction in transfer of ownership to a strong bank holding company which will keep 'The Western Way' alive," said Bob Whitlock, senior counsel for the Minneapolis-based law firm Fredrikson & Byron. "She has been the bank's champion in that process.".Causey also has a long list of other achievements. She is a trustee of Colby College and a director of both the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and of the HealthEast Care System.Other 2012 Outstanding Women in Banking honorees include:Doris Loen, First Security Bank/Amundson Group, Benson, Minn.Mary Sulser, Buena Vista National Bank, Chester, Ill.Nancy Skophammer, Farmers State Bank of Hartland, Minn.Jennifer Sobotta, Forward Financial Bank, Marshfield, Wis.