2026 BankBeat magazine Outstanding Women in Banking: Heather Nelson

When focusing on what’s best for clients and employees, success followsIf entrepreneurship is about “solving problems and creating new value for customers,” then Heather Nelson, president and CEO of Spring Bank in Milwaukee suburb Brookfield, Wis., is as much an entrepreneur as the more than 100 startup companies she has helped access capital. Nelson has been in banking for more than three decades, most of them as a commercial lender, and she’s enjoyed the ride. “I love being with the customers and being able to see them reach their dreams ... and seeing how that impacts the people around them,” she said..A lot of people who come to Spring Bank have struggled to obtain business capital. “It’s fun to be able to engage them and allow them to move forward,” she said.At a prior bank, she remembers two men who came into the bank wanting to purchase a mixed-use property. Their intent was to open a restaurant on the first floor and rent out the second. “They had the proper down payment, [had] put together a business plan, had the numbers together, but no one really gave them the chance because their explanation was in broken English, [and] they were going to have to both work their other jobs,” Nelson said. “I remember telling them they were approved for the loan. They cried, they were so happy!”The restaurant was successful. Then the borrowers sold that business and went into trucking. They followed Nelson to two different banks and are now at Spring Bank where she “still works with them today; it’s been 30-plus years,” she said. “It’s really neat to see them get the opportunity.”That story supports what others say about Nelson, describing her as someone who “champions community engagement,” “provides stellar service,” and has integrity and drive, in addition to being a role model, an MVP, and a power player.When Nelson was named bank president at the beginning of 2023, she was one of about 16 female bank presidents in Wisconsin. At the time, the bank had $372.7 million in assets. Three years later, assets have grown to $441.9 million.“Heather is a relationship banker at her core which is the epitome of good community bankers,” said Rose Oswald Poels, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Bankers Association. Nelson has been successful as a leader in banking “because she easily forms relationships with people, enjoys learning about their small business passions, and then works tirelessly to help them finance their dreams.”Since adding CEO to her title in 2024, Nelson also has been named a “Woman of Influence” in Milwaukee, a “Notable Woman in Banking” in southeastern Wisconsin, and a 2026 “Power Player” in Milwaukee. Now she adds a regional title as one of BankBeat’s “Outstanding Women in Banking.”Since she’s been running the day-to-day of the bank, she’s enjoyed the freedom to “hire younger women who really wanted to learn from me the different ways to work with customers and different approaches to lending,” Nelson said. “There’s not just one way [to lend], and numbers are just part of the story. I wanted to be able to teach the younger generation, or any generation, that you really have to look at the whole picture to assess a loan.”Nelson feels she has a significant advantage because she’s been in banking for so long in one geographic region. She knows how to find alternative financing sources, who she can partner with, and how to get the numbers to work, in ways and means “that maybe you couldn’t at a traditional bank,” she said.“She is well known for partnering with many local organizations including Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation, Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation, and the Small Business Administration to use traditional financing alongside other start-up capital to help small businesses get started and grow,” Oswald Poels said.Nelson models that creativity not only at the bank but also in a group called Women In Banking she was instrumental in starting. “Being one of very few women who are presidents and CEOs in Wisconsin, it’s important for me to have other women [in banking] see that so they know it’s attainable,” she said.Nelson places high value on building others up through professional development, informally and formally. “I’ve been lucky enough to have people around me who were able to give a lot to me, invest a lot in me, and give me the connections and understanding of how different businesses operate, how different people operate, in order to be successful,” she said. “I try to give that opportunity to other people because I know that you need a whole team to move things forward.”Nelson “is leading a team of community bankers at Spring Bank who share her relationship-based banking vision, understanding that if their customers succeed then the bank will as well,” Oswald Poels said. And that’s the legacy Nelson wants to leave.“I want people to say, ‘Hey, she was there for me. She helped me. She supported me,’ and that I made a difference in their business, in how they were able to move forward and be successful,” she said. “And I think it’s really important for me that all people are represented in the community and in the bank, so we are making sure we are helping women, helping people of color and making an even playing field for everyone in banking, in the community, so that it’s a better place for everybody.”