2010 Rising Stars in Banking: Todd Means

Todd Means started his banking career while in college at the University of Iowa, encouraged by his father who was then the market president of a community bank in Iowa City. During his senior year, Means moved into a full-time job as a personal banker while he completed his studies in economics. By then he had developed a strong sense for community banking..In time his bank merged with another and "sort of changed the culture and lost that community touch," Means said. He wanted to leave the bank but not his hometown of Iowa City, "so I had to find a bank that I thought had the same values and interest in supporting the community as I did.".He found it in the Iowa City-based Iowa State Bank & Trust, now MidWestOne Bank. His interviews with COO Susan Evans and CEO Charlie Funk convinced him that the bank had the right ideas and the right leadership to successfully support itself and the surrounding community for years to come. Funk explained that the bank would focus on core deposit growth and would succeed by following three operating principles.."They are: to hire and retain good people, to take care of our customers and to conduct ourselves with the utmost integrity," Means said. "Since I started at the bank, those three principles are probably what I have learned to abide by more than anything else. I really feel that if you take care of those three things the rest is going to take care of itself.".Means joined the bank in 2002 as the branch manager of the Coralville office. About three years later he added a second location to his portfolio, the Keokuk Street branch in Iowa City. In 2008, he added a third location in North Liberty, an Iowa City suburb. Then, last August Means was named vice president and regional retail manager for the central region, bringing the number of locations under his management up to five, which together account for about 40 percent of MidWestOne's $1.5 billion in total deposits..Means's original location, the Coralville branch, is an example of the bank's larger success. It has grown to $53 million in deposits, up from $45 million when Means started. The bank succeeds by "building really strong relationships with customers," Means said.."We want our customers to call us directly; we don't want them calling an 800 number or a service center. We want them to think of Todd when they have a need, and that's something that takes time to cultivate," he said. "As I look back at our operating principles, integrity is a big part of that; taking care of customers the right way, giving them the right advice and not just trying to book a deal to book a deal," he said..Staying tuned to customers also helped the bank execute its name change from Iowa State Bank & Trust, Means said.."The big thing from a customer's perspective was that we'd been in the community for almost 75 years and our name was changing. Our people were still obviously in place, but we really had to devise a plan on how we were going to communicate with our customers that while our name was changing our bank was not. We weren't getting bigger just to get bigger; we were getting bigger to get better," he said..Outside the bank Means likes to spend time with his wife and two sons. He coaches his seven-year-old's baseball team and has appointed his four-year-old the team's batboy. The family enjoys football too: "Being in a university town, the Hawkeyes play a very important role, especially in the fall," he said..He is active in the local Chamber of Commerce, where he has served as an ambassador and has completed a community leadership program. He is also involved with the North Corridor Rotary Club. His affiliations also include board service for Systems Unlimited, an Iowa City-based nonprofit that supports adults with disabilities..Within the industry, Means has attended the Iowa School of Banking and is about to begin his third year at the Graduate School of Banking in Colorado.Other 2010 Rising Stars in Banking include:Andrew Sexton, Readlyn Savings Bank, Readlyn, IowaPatrick Artz, State Bank of Bottineau, N.D.Lesly Couper, Alpine Bank, Rockford, Ill.Daniel Padilla, First National Bank of Omaha, Neb.Bryan Bruns, Annandale State Bank, Annandale, Minn.Annette Russell, Security Federal Savings Bank, Logansport, Ind.