Bridgewater Bank benefits from director’s ‘go-getter’ ethos.If you’re going to start a commercial bank, you’ll want to recruit a few business leaders to help you make inroads into those communities. So when Jerry Baack left his job at Commerce Bank to launch Bridgewater Bank in 2005, he set out to recruit his former customer, Jim Johnson, to be both an investor and a board member. “I was the small-business hustler guy,” Johnson said. “I’ve owned my own business for 32 years. I’ve been a member of six different chambers of commerce here in the Twin Cities metro area. I’ve been president of one chamber, on the board of another chamber ... in Rotary for 10 years. I think [Baack] wanted a Main Street business guy who knew businesses up and down the streets of Bloomington and Edina and Eden Prairie and Eagan.”A quarter of a century later, Johnson, a BankBeat magazine 2026 “Amazing Outside Director” honoree, reflects on his journey with Bridgewater and sums it neatly: "It’s all been super.”But there were no guarantees at the outset. Jumping on the Baack train required Johnson to turn away from a banking relationship with someone he considered a friend, Commerce Bank CEO James Senske, who like Johnson grew up in the southern Minnesota community of Albert Lea. Commerce Bank had given Johnson and his company, Express Employment Professionals, everything it needed in a bank, he said. Yet the opportunity Baack was offering was unique and compelling, he added.Complicating his decision to run with Baack was the fact that Bridgewater’s very first employee, Mary Jayne Crocker, was also being lured away from Commerce Bank. Ironically it had been Johnson’s talent recruiting firm that had placed Crocker at Commerce. So before saying “yes” to Baack, Johnson had to assure Senske that he was not part of some lift-out campaign. “I had nothing to do with any of that,” he explained, telling Senske he’d “just been asked to serve on their board and invest, and that’s what I planned to do. But this was not orchestrated by me.”Johnson’s friendship with Senske ultimately survived. The growth of St. Louis Park, Minn.-based Bridgewater since its founding has been widely reported by this publication and others, growth achieved through private equity capital, a public offering and through acquisition. In 25 years, the bank has evolved from an idea into a formidable industry competitor in the Twin Cities and beyond, with more than $5 billion in assets. The bank has recently taken on cannabis banking and launched an online deposit gathering tool it calls Timbr.Its culture is aggressive and Johnson said that mirrors his own working style: “I’m a sales-first mentality,” he said. “They nicknamed me ‘the grinder’ on the board. I still work very, very hard and I personally contribute to my business and to the bank through referrals.”Johnson said the Bridgewater culture is composed of a lot of hardworking individuals who embody the edict: Just one more thing, one more time.“In the boardroom, Jim is known as a thoughtful and constructive contributor with a long-term mindset,” Baack said in his nomination. “He brings an entrepreneurial lens to discussions and is particularly effective at helping the board navigate complex decisions across multiple economic cycles ... especially during periods of macroeconomic and market uncertainty.”The bank, launched to focus on commercial real estate lending, came out of the Great Recession having maintained the size of its loan portfolio and having picked up customers who’d been cut off by other banks, according to a 2017 interview with Baack. Johnson concurs: “They needed money and we kept lending to them that whole time. Those are still our clients and they’re very, very loyal to us because we didn’t turn the spigot off when they needed us back in those days.”Johnson, who is in his early 60s, said one of his assets is having a good memory, which means he’s inclined to circle back and ask management for accountability check-ins on certain initiatives. “I’m intrigued, as a business person, when we do things like Timbr and cannabis banking,” Johnson said. “I like to see how we perform against how we said we were going to perform.”Johnson first bought into the Express franchise in 1994 with his wife, who worked at the company. The pair once owned five franchises, but have pared back to their initial two franchises in recent years. That’s not to say Johnson is slowing down. “I’m up early and work long hours,” he said. “Dust never settles on me.” Clients are reaching out, some to backfill teams as immigration enforcement affects their respective workforce.But the board is a clear passion. “We meet every single month and we meet in person,” Johnson said. “It would be rare that somebody wouldn’t be there. It’s just the culture of the board, I guess.”Baack considers Johnson more than an investor and a director: “He’s a tireless ambassador for Bridgewater,” Baack said.Johnson has been equally pleased with his own contribution to Bridgewater. “It’s been a great addition to my career,” he said. “I tell my wife the day of the board meetings, that it’s my favorite day of the month. I get to sit around that table with those 10 different minds all from different backgrounds and different vantage points, and we truly mix it up in that meeting that sometimes your head just wants to blow. People are so knowledgeable about so many different things and it’s just really fun to tap those resources all in one room like that.”
