Cover Story
Agribusiness Citizen of the Year Phil DeGroot Career: Ag banking team lead, The First National Bank in Sioux Falls Family: Wife, Jen; Son, Sam (15); Daughters, Sophie (14) and Sydney (11) Education: South Dakota State University Community roles: Sioux Empire Livestock Show, Stockyards Ag Experience board, South Dakota State University Association board, First Presbyterian Church youth group and kindergarten teacher
Phil DeGroot, an Ag Banker with The First National Bank in Sioux Falls, is the 2024 Agribusiness Citizen of the Year. Photo by Wendy Sweeter.
Phil DeGroot named Agribusiness Citizen of the Year Agribusiness Division of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce has named Phil DeGroot as the 2024 Agribusiness Citizen of the Year.
what they need and what’s going on,” he said. “The collections background actually was really, really good. It’s not something in life anybody says, ‘I really want to be a collector,’ but having that background has really helped me in my career.”
Growing up on a dairy and hog farm in northwest Iowa, DeGroot thought he would return to the family farm after college. After graduating from South Dakota State University in 2003 with a degree in ag business and a minor in ag marketing, he did just that.
DeGroot transitioned to ag lending with Wells Fargo at the Stockyards when the Obama administration made changes to the student loan industry. Eventually he transferred to the bank’s branch in Beresford, where he served customers in the communities of Beresford, Irene and Viborg.
Nine months later, after reassessing the capital needs of the dairy barn, he took a job in student loan collections at Wells Fargo in Sioux Falls. While that was not the career he first had in mind, DeGroot credits his seven years in that position with equipping him for his future positions.
After Wells Fargo, DeGroot worked in ag lending at Home Federal Bank in Canton, Lennox and Crooks for about four years. In 2015, the ag banking manager at The First National Bank in Sioux Falls, Brian Gilbert, reached out to invite DeGroot to come work for them. He made the switch, and today DeGroot serves as an ag banking team lead in Sioux Falls.
By Wendy Sweeter For the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce
“If you want to learn how to talk to people, communicate with people, negotiate with people…get into collections. You will learn how to talk to people on a phone and understand
28 Chamber News | January/February 2024
His first involvement with the Chamber’s Agribusiness Division was in 2011 when he began attending monthly