SCANTHE CODE TO WATCH EDTELLHIS STORY

CongratulationstoWCCO Belting, Inc. founder, nationally recognizedentrepreneur, and“Leaders &Legacies” Awardrecipient, Ed Shorma, who recently celebratedthecompany’s 65th business anniversarywith anew facilityexpansion.

Steve Stenehjem CEO, First International Bank & Trust Watford City, N.D.

When Steve Stenehjem was a boy, his family would take trips across North Dakota. And when they’d cruise through the state’s small towns, Steve’s dad, Leland Stenehjem, would say, “You can always tell what kind of banker a town has just by driving down its Main Street.”

Leland would know; he was president of First International Bank, the bank his own father had founded in western North Dakota in 1910.

In 1996, Steve Stenehjem became the third-generation CEO.

Today, First International Bank & Trust is North Dakota’s second largest, with 27 branch locations throughout North Dakota, Minnesota and Arizona and nearly 650 employees. And while it took the bank 100 years to reach $1 billion in assets, it took only another five to reach $2 billion, and now the bank values its assets at close to $3 billion.

In 2018, when the bank was considered for an award at the Best Banks in America Super Conference, it took home the grand prize. The national honor is awarded for exemplary performance in philanthropy, customer service, thought leadership, workplace culture and financial literacy education, five key areas of banking.

Speaking of philanthropy, the Stenehjem family donated the land and provided financing for the Watford City Rough Rider Center, a 250,000-square-foot facility that provides space for meetings, sporting events, concerts and conventions. They donated land for the construction of Watford City High School and Fox Hills Golf Course. With these and other efforts, Stenehjem tries to ensure that First International Bank & Trust communities will reflect his father’s vision of a city with a good banker for years to come.

Your bu sine ss’s su cc es shas be en DC N’sb us in ess sinc ed ay on e. Wh ethe ryouhave ao ne -orm ul tisiten et wo rk ,wes er ve as yo ur busi ne ss’s si ng le po int of co ntac t andprovide 24 /7/365 suppor tfrom ou rh ighly tr ai ne dtec hnicia ns .

Steve Swiontek

chairman and past president and CEO, Gate City Bank Fargo, N.D.

Bruce Vaaler President & CEO, Vaaler Insurance Grand Forks, N.D.

Steve Swiontek is the executive chair and chair of the board at Gate City Bank. He began his career at the bank in 1978 as a management trainee, and served as chair, president & CEO between 2001 and 2019.

Gate City Bank, which was founded in 1923, had 24 locations in 2001. Under Swiontek’s leadership, it has expanded to 38 locations across 19 communities in North Dakota and west central Minnesota and is the No. 1 mortgage lender in North Dakota.

Swiontek’s vision also has helped Gate City Bank become a community leader in philanthropic giving. The bank provided $2.2 million to local nonprofit organizations in 2018.

And Swiontek makes a priority of improving work life for the bank’s team members by providing an excellent workplace culture and comprehensive benefits. As a result, the bank offers 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, team member loan programs and opportunities for growth and development. It also encourages volunteering on company time, a commitment that totaled 14,100 hours.

For these and other efforts, Gate City Bank with its 700plus team members has been recognized by Prairie Business magazine as one of the 50 Best Places to Work for five years in a row.

Swiontek leads by example and strives to inspire the bank’s mission of providing a better way of life for customers, communities and team members.

When sponsors are listed for the area’s charitable organizations and events, among the corporate names that turn up most often is this one: Vaaler.

Safe Kids Grand Forks: Vaaler. St. Joseph’s Thrift Store: Vaaler. Care Providers of Minnesota: Vaaler. Red River Valley Community Action: Vaaler. Greater Grand Forks Women’s Leadership Cooperative: Vaaler. Art on the Red: Vaaler.

Junior Achievement: Vaaler, and for 22 years, ever since the Vaaler family first brought the program to the attention of Grand Forks Public Schools.

Vaaler is shorthand for Vaaler Insurance, a regional agency that has been providing insurance and financial services for 72 years.

Bruce Vaaler is the third-generation owner, president and CEO. “When I was young, I would clean the agency on Saturdays while my father worked, so that was my first taste of the business,” Vaaler once told Prairie Business.

“After high school, I went to a college (the University of Iowa) with one of the few insurance departments in the country, so, at that point, there was no turning back. Insurance was and still is exciting to me.”

Vaaler is one of the 4 percent of the nation’s property casualty employees who’ve earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation, a credential often called the CPA of the insurance industry. Under his leadership, Vaaler Insurance now has 88 employees and locations Grand Forks, Fargo, Bismarck and Minneapolis.

But the company is known as much for its civic spirit as it is for its business success; and in both cases, Vaaler deflects the credit.

“It’s an honor to get an award that really belongs to all our staff,” he said at Prairie Business’ Leaders & Legacies event.