2017 Rising Stars in Banking: Tony Gudajtes

If you told a 13-year-old Tony Gudajtes he would be involved in banking three decades later, he would readily believe you. If you told him he would also be farming the same land he grew up on, he would quickly doubt your fortune-telling abilities..Gudajtes had been working that land for five years at that point. He started driving a tractor at age 8 and a loaded grain truck two years later. By his early teenage years, Gudajtes had decided the farming life wasn't for him.."Farming lost some of its luster when I was already combining and driving our biggest tractors," the 42-year old version of Gudajtes said. "It got a little monotonous and not as much fun just operating heavy machinery.".Gudajtes needed an answer to adults inevitably asking what he wanted to do when he grew up. They assumed he would say farmer. Instead, he looked around the small towns of Warsaw and Grafton, N.D. He grew up just outside the former, 15 miles from the latter, where Gudajtes is now the location president for the $1.1 billion Choice Financial, based in Fargo, N.D. There were not many professional jobs around, but there were bankers..NorthWestern Financial Review is honoring Gudajtes as a Rising Star in Banking for 2017, along with five other bankers.."I said, that looks like a pretty nice job, being a banker," Gudajtes imagined his 13-year-old self's logic. "I opened the local university [binder] and I happened to see the University of North Dakota had a Banking and Financial Economics degree. That's something I can do.".From there, Gudajtes landed first as a teller at Choice Financial in college, worked his way up the ladder in operations after graduation in December of 1997 and then moved to Bremer Bank, still in Grafton, for seven years. When Choice called him with a location president opening, Gudajtes returned in 2011..Chris Johnson, Choice Financial's location president in Grand Forks, N.D., followed a nearly identical path. For most of the last 15 years, he and Gudajtes have worked together.."One thing about Tony over those years that comes to mind with what he's done, a lot of it comes down to his plain common sense," Johnson said. "Not everything has to be a square peg in a square box for a bank loan. He has a good intuition about how a customer is going to pay back a loan, how a customer is going to succeed.".That explains the banking. How, then, to explain to the 13-year-old Gudajtes that he now lives in the house he grew up in and farms the land he once found monotonous?.While he was in college,Gudajtes' father retired from farming. Suddenly, banking seemed to be the only option but as Gudajtes got his feet under him, he was given the opportunity to rent one of the fields he grew up on. He was already living in the old homestead, his parents having moved into town..Piece by piece he rented more acres, and then those rentals turned into purchases. By now, Gudajtes owns the land his father used to, and a bit more on top of that. His self-described "average-sized farm" raises sugar beets, edible beans, soy beans, wheat and barley, not to mention the hobby animal farm maintained by his wife and four children — three daughters ages 17, 13 and 11, and one son, age 8. Those children are why Gudajtes thought it would be a good idea to add to his workload by taking on the role of vice president on the school board, now the third year of his first term..The farm has aided Gudajtes' banking career. Perhaps the bored 13-year-old would accept that logic.."Being a farmer has helped me advance my career, build relationships and earn trust because I speak the same language as [my customers]," Gudajtes said. "We're suffering through the same weather and commodity price events. That has brought me equity in the customers' eyes as a valued partner.".For that matter, working with his agricultural borrowers showed Gudajtes smart moves to make in his early years of working his own farm, and the mistakes to avoid. The combination may be a lot to handle — especially when ag loan renewals overlap with his own planting season — but Gudajtes has never faltered.."To balance all that would be very difficult," Johnson said. "I just think about balancing family and a banking position, let alone throwing in those acres of farming into that picture. It's pretty amazing, actually."Other 2017 Rising Stars in Banking honorees include:Bob Southworth, HomeTown Bank, St. Peter, Minn.Lori Keigher, HomeStar Bank, Manteno, Ill.Jon King, Fidelity Bank & Trust, Oelwein, IowaBecky Miller, First Bank Financial Centre, Oconomowoc, Wis.Dan Maddox, Citizens State Bank, New Castle, Ind.