The traditional 20th anniversary gift is china. If he could serve a celebratory dinner for the occasion, Bruce says he’d go with “an entrée selection of beef or chicken, and cheesecake for dessert.”

Indirect sales team leader Bruce Craker celebrated 20 years with North Shore Bank earlier this month. He started with us in 2002 after working as the general sales manager for a Madison-area Ford dealership.

“I worked with Kip Lang from North Shore Bank on leasing vehicles through the bank’s indirect program,” Bruce says. When Kip mentioned that he was retiring, Bruce asked him how he liked working for North Shore. “Three weeks later, I had met with Mike Kellman twice and was offered a position as a regional account manager for western Wisconsin.”

“Bruce has turned out to be an incredible hire for me,” Mike says. “He has led his team to amazing growth, with incredible credit quality and dealer loyalty. He is a great leader, and I congratulate him on two decades with North Shore Bank.”

It’s been easy to stick around, Bruce says. “I have enjoyed the people at North Shore Bank and the people in the dealerships I call on for business.”

The most important lesson he’s learned, he says, is the value of building relationships.

“I want to have multiple relationships inside the businesses I work with,” he says. “Employees come and go, so you always benefit from having more than one advocate inside a customer’s business.”