2025 Amazing Outside Directors: Jack Hillstrom

Jack Hillstrom is the unofficial historian for Premier Bank, Maplewood, Minn., and Premier Bank Minnesota, Hastings. The 88-year-old director recently commemorated 72 years in the banking industry, and 50 years with the Premier Banks organization..Residing in the northern Minnesota community of Marcell, Hillstrom serves on the board of both Premier banks, participating in at least two board meetings per month, most often in person although increasingly virtually.Hillstrom is being honored by BankBeat magazine as an Amazing Outside Director for 2025. Don Regan, BankBeat magazine’s Banker of the Year in 2015, hired Hillstrom in 1973 to run his newly-chartered Maplewood State Bank.Hillstrom already had 20-plus years in the industry, starting his career in Minneapolis at Farmers and Mechanics Bank in 1953 as a teenager. While still in college, he worked as a regulator for the Minneapolis Clearing House Association. He then moved to Stockyards National Bank of South Saint Paul, which eventually became part of Wells Fargo & Company.Hillstrom explained that he sought to accelerate his career, so he looked for work in the community bank sector of the industry. That’s when Don Regan reached out to him. Hillstrom learned Regan was the owner of bus companies, and that he was starting a bank with his brother, Robert J. Regan. Hillstrom met with Regan several times at Regan’s home, sometimes staying for dinner.“The real awakening came when I met him for the first time at his bus company office,” Hillstrom explained. “It was more of a shack than an office. It had an oil furnace in the center of the room. When I sat down, I wasn’t sure of what to expect for future working conditions.”Regan offered Hillstrom the job and the bank opened in a trailer in 1974. The pair got the bank up and running, growing it to $82 million in assets within 15 years. They changed the name to Premier Bank in 1988. Also that year, Midwest Federal Savings & Loan failed, creating a potential growth opportunity for Premier.To turn the potential into reality, Hillstrom and Regan went to Congress to convince them to allow banks to bid on a portion of Midwest’s deposits and loans rather than requiring bidders to make offers for the entire institution. Congress was persuaded and it ordered the Resolution Trust Corporation to change the bidding rules, opening up the process so that smaller banks could participate.Premier was one of 23 successful bidders for Midwest’s deposits. Offering $2.1 million for $184.3 million in deposits, Premier grew to be one of the state’s top 10 banking organizations by size, a substantial jump from its earlier ranking.The company tripled in size, and Hillstrom said he and Don Regan and the rest of their team worked evenings, weekends and holidays to handle all the work. “It was a long successful project,” he commented. Today, the two banks combined have 20 branches and $1.7 billion-plus in assets.Hillstrom says he has retired three times from the organization, first in 2001, when he and his wife Jane moved up north from the Twin Cities. In 2005, Regan asked Hillstrom to come out of retirement to manage Premier Bank Rochester’s four branches, essentially training Corey Heimer to take over as president.Hillstrom stayed on for one and a half years to facilitate that transition. Then, in 2009, Regan asked Hillstrom to return, this time to facilitate a leadership transition in Premier Bank Minnesota. Over a period of two and a half years, Hillstrom trained Casey Regan to manage that bank.Hillstrom has been a director of all Premier Banks since their inceptions and mentored bank leaders, particularly Jeff Hatton, retired president Mark Novitzki and many members of the Regan and Nath families, for more than 30 years.“Jack Hillstrom’s unique blend of talent, hard work and unwavering dedication is the cornerstone on which Premier Banks built a firm foundation,” commented Sean Regan, chair of Premier Bank. “His ability to share and convey those qualities to many of our key people and communities over the decades has been an inspiration and a blessing to us all,” added Pat Regan, chair of Premier Bank Minnesota.In addition to his work at Premier, Hillstrom has been very active in community service. He has poured hours upon hours of work into supporting and preserving the Bigfork Valley Hospital. “Rural hospitals, similar to independent community banks, are disappearing,” Hillstrom said. “But I am optimistic about Bigfork’s survival given the hospital’s new CEO.”Hillstrom has also been active in leadership at his church, as well as organizations such as the Optimists Club, Rotary, Boy Scouts, Junior Achievement, United Way, YMCA and the Jaycees. For many years, he was vice chair of Midwest Special Services, which assists people with disabilities. He also served on Minnesota Bankers Association committees and in 1990-91 (the same year as the Midwest deal) he served as president of the Independent Bankers of Minnesota, now known as BankIn Minnesota.“Jack Hillstrom’s influence will forever be embedded into the Premier Banks family,” said Kelly Regan, director of marketing for Premier Banks. “Jack’s dedication, example, can-do attitude, along with his mentorship of past, current and future leaders is a gift we will forever cherish.”Hillstrom recalls his career fondly but can’t ignore an important fork in his path. “When I worked at Farmers and Mechanics, I was offered a position in the IT department,” he explained, noting a top-of-class score on a technology aptitude test he took at the time. “I turned the job down, but I have always wondered how my career would have changed had I accepted it.”Now, Hillstrom said, IT is one of the biggest topics of discussion at board meetings. “We talk about it constantly, and we are spending more time and resources on tech than ever before. It is the only way an independent bank can survive.”