Pat Ingelse just missed being an April fool; she started her North Shore Bank career on April 2, 1990. A little disappointed that she can’t celebrate her service anniversary on the mischievous holiday, Pat says, “Somehow, starting on April Fools’ Day just seemed that it would have fit my personality.”

But that’s where the disappointment ends. Pat can’t say enough about North Shore Bank as an organization and her co-workers in Management Information Systems, where she is a project manager: “We have an incredibly dedicated group of folks here who care about customers. It is an honor to be part of that team.”

As Pat marks her 20th year at North Shore Bank, she looks back on previous roles: She started as a CSR supervisor, then moved to the Deferred Compensation area, then to Training, and then to Information Technology. She has been in Management Information Systems since 2000 and earned Project Management Professional certification in April 2005.

Two decades have brought countless technology changes. “When I started working in the bank field, things such as interest payments were manually calculated. Having information readily available electronically and integrated between programs as it is today makes it so much easier to focus on the customer and provide great service,” she says, adding, “The growth of technology and its impact on processes and efficiencies is amazing.”

Pat’s current role as a project manager enables her to help the bank adapt new technology. She oversees projects that involve more than one department by setting project scope and goals, defining the time span, assembling a team, helping clear roadblocks that may arise, tracking the project’s progress and documenting its results, and in general supporting the functional manager.

She also oversees the bank’s Business Continuity Planning (featured in our last newsletter), which ensures that the bank would continue to operate in the event of a fire, tornado, pandemic illness or similar happening.

While Pat has had the greatest respect for the expertise and dedication of her colleagues through the years, she also appreciates their humor. “It was always interesting in the IT area to come back from vacation and see how my work space had been ‘redecorated,’” she says. “It has been everything from completely wrapped in tinfoil to having water-filled paper cups as new carpeting.”

“Pat has been successful for the past 20 years for many reasons, but there are two in particular that come to mind,” says Dean Trout, senior vice president and Information Systems chief information officer. “One is that Pat understands the sales and operational needs of the bank because she has been involved in all aspects of this business. Her experience has served both her and the bank well, enabling her to achieve a higher success ratio as a project manager than is found in most other organizations.

“The second reason for Pat’s success is her loyalty. She is loyal to her peers, to her managers, and most notably to North Shore Bank. Pat’s loyalty is not that of a smiling ‘yes’ person who just wants to get along. Pat is loyal by working hard to do the right thing, and if she sees what she thinks is a better way to accomplish something, she makes her opinion known.”

Pat continues to follow the career advice she would offer to those new to banking: “Be open to change. We are presented with so many opportunities to learn something new professionally as well as personally in this industry. North Shore Bank is the perfect size and structure to offer chances for us to continually expand our abilities. Seizing those opportunities makes for a challenging, satisfying career.”