2025 Outstanding Women in Banking: Sarah Getzlaff

A banker since her teens, North Dakotan bets on others’ dreamsAs Security First Bank of North Dakota CEO Sarah Getzlaff remembers it, her first day as a banker began the summer she was 14 years old. Her dad knocked on her bedroom door and told her to dress up because they were short-staffed at the family-owned bank in North Dakota..“Then I worked every day of summer break, Christmas break, snow days, every day I didn’t have school from that point forward through high school and college,” Getzlaff said.Getzlaff’s mom recalls an earlier first day, when the family paid her $1 to crawl under the vault door because someone had locked the keys inside.Either way, Getzlaff appreciates the opportunity to have grown into a leadership role at the bank where she quite literally grew up.Getzlaff is one of BankBeat magazine’s “Outstanding Women in Banking” for 2025. Only in her 40s, she’s already been a community banker for about 30 years, becoming a certified public accountant and auditing community banks for McGladrey & Pullen before returning to Security First in 2007. She became chief operating officer in 2012 and CEO in 2018.First Security Bank of North Dakota — celebrating its 100th anniversary this year — now has branches in Mandan, New Salem, Center and Bismarck.“Her astounding depth and breadth of knowledge of her industry is incredible,” said Alexis Baxley, president of the Independent Community Banks of North Dakota, in her nomination of Getzlaff. “But what’s even more amazing is how she pours into others — as CEO of her community bank she finds time to be an industry advocate … builds up incredible female leaders on her own team and in her community, is an active mom of three and makes sure Security First never strays from the ‘community’ aspect of community bank.”Getzlaff notes that it may be a cliché, but working at the bank is more than a job, it’s like a family with staff who were “second moms” when she started decades ago and grew to be friends.“I can tell you there’s nobody who watches out for their customers more fiercely than the personal bankers on the front line,” Getzlaff said. “When I was in high school, I would watch the ladies and it was amazing to me the things they could pick up on.” Getzlaff recalls such examples as when a vacuum cleaner salesman came in with a check to cash, the teller went in the back and called the check writer to make sure she really wanted to spend so much on a vacuum. She didn’t, so they ripped up the check and sent the salesman back to pick up the vacuum.“I feel like it really helped shape me into a leader who puts a focus on watching out for our customers,” Getzlaff said.Getzlaff’s dad was also an example to her of what it means to be a banker in a place where you really know your customers. “He’s always gone way above and beyond,” Getzlaff said, recalling him getting a call out to a gas station when a customer was headed out of town because of a medical emergency. He handed them cash from his own wallet, saying, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out when you get back.” Getzlaff has a similar penchant for service, helping a customer get a replacement for a malfunctioning travel card after getting a panicked call the night before a trip.“I honestly don’t know how she ever got my cellphone number. It doesn’t matter,” Getzlaff said. “Because we see these people in the community every day and we really, truly want the best for them.”She feels that it’s important to take a chance on other people’s dreams — whether that is a coffee shop or chiropractic office — because those people have also taken a chance and made Security First successful. She values investing in the community, including stepping up for a last-minute need at her high school alma mater and also donating the funding so that the local fairgrounds could buy more land. She’s one of a handful of parents who started a booster club at her kids’ school.Getzlaff is married to Tyler Getzlaff, who works for a homebuilder. Together they have sons Caiden, 16, and Carter, 14, and daughter, Piper, 10. “I gave up on balance a long time ago,” Getzlaff said of being a working parent. “My motto is we work hard and we play hard.”Getzlaff said she has involved the kids in selling concessions for the school booster club and in serving meals at church. And for play, the family spends nearly every summer weekend at Lake Metigoshe near the Canadian border, water skiing and wake surfing. The kids also play basketball, football and volleyball. The family enjoys being social, getting together with other families almost every weekend. Getzlaff enjoys that her job is different every single day — diving into Excel spreadsheets one minute, helping with a new account the next or staying late to testify at a county commission meeting to help a community group.“I just like the challenge of always learning new things. I don’t like to sit still for too long. I like to keep busy,” Getzlaff said. Part of that is staying involved in the industry, in which she also takes after her dad. The new chair of the ICBND, Getzlaff also volunteers for the Independent Community Bankers of America.“All of that has been a huge honor,” Getzlaff said. Baxley noted that Getzlaff has a deep understanding both of how important advocacy is to the work and of the banking industry.“It’s just really impressive, but you also wouldn’t necessarily know that when you talk to her because she is so approachable and so friendly. She takes people under her wing and is just willing to show up and do whatever’s necessary,” Baxley said. “We really appreciate that about her.”