Mike serving up something yummy at last month’s annual pancake breakfast for Corporate’s United Performing Arts Fund fundraising campaign.
As part of our centennial coverage, the Senior Leader Showcase series highlights executives who’ve been instrumental in helping North Shore Bank celebrate 100 years of success.
As senior vice president in charge of consumer credit sales, Mike Kellman notes, “I get the unique deals.” His first job out of college, at now-defunct consumer loan operation Norwest Financial, introduced him to lending, and he was hooked almost immediately. He moved into traditional banking when he became a branch manager at Firstar and then “jumped at the chance” to join North Shore Bank in 2001 as vice president sales, corporate banking.
“My energy, my passion is finding ways to make unique deals work,” says Mike, who was promoted to his current role in 2011. “I get so energized dealing with these situations. It’s like a puzzle, and you have to fit everything together to make sense for both parties. And in the end, you’re helping people achieve their dreams.”
What led you to get into banking in the first place? And are the same things that interested you then still interesting to you now?
Coming out of college, I sent résumés everywhere, and I got one job offer that wasn’t from an insurance agent, from a company called Norwest Financial. That was all about lending. You did everything — finding the customer, processing the deal, all of it. They were small loans, but that’s how I began to learn lending. Then I moved into banking at Firstar, because of a friend. I liked banking, and I liked lending in particular. And then when I got an offer from North Shore Bank, that gave me the opportunity to do lots of lending.
Mike speaking to RV and marine lenders in 2004; with former North Shore Bank SVP of consumer credit Dave Potter and then-CEO Jim McKenna in 2006; and in the buffet at the holiday party around the same time.
What is it about your personality and skills that makes lending such a good fit for you?
I think being an inquisitive people-person is probably what it is. I ask questions that, in the end, will lead you to the right answer. The right answer is sometimes no! But asking those questions gets you to that right answer. And the people-pleaser thing — I just want to help people.
Obviously, the business and banking landscape has changed a lot since 2001, when you started here. What’s a change that you personally have really noticed?
The pace at which things happen. It is incredible that now you can pull a credit report, pull a valuation, and know almost exactly where you stand within five seconds of taking the application. You might not have 100 percent of the picture, but you know the situation pretty darn well, almost instantly.
This photo of Mike with sons Alex and Drew is from a 2009 BizTimes article about his time as a volunteer chess instructor for elementary schoolers. (Read it here.) Nowadays, he says, he doesn’t play often. “Soon after I taught my kids chess, they quickly surpassed me,” he says. “But they still play on a regular basis, typically online and against each other.”
What has kept you at North Shore?
It’s a blessing to be here, because North Shore Bank has so many legs it can stand on. There is never a time that all of our asset classes are going in the same direction — they’re never all terrific; they’re never all bad. That keeps us very well balanced. Since I’ve been here, there have been years we’ve done over half a billion dollars in mortgage lending and years we’ve done as little as $80 million. In our indirect business — boats and RVs — when I started, we did $17 million a year in production. The last couple of years and this year, we’re going to do over $160 million. You just have to go with the flow and move with what’s working, and put your resources toward the avenues that have the highest chances of success in that moment. It keeps things interesting.
You’ve chaired the Wisconsin Mortgage Bankers Association and chaired committees for the Wisconsin Bankers Association, among other things. What’s it like to represent a bank that has 100 years of history behind it, as far as being out among other folks in the industry goes? I’m guessing most of them can’t say that about their companies.
There’s tremendous pride. You know, I have a lot of friends who’ve sat at the same desk for as long as I have, but have had four different business cards in that time, because of all the acquisitions.
And I think we get a lot of respect from our peers in the marketplace. Like: “North Shore — they know how to do it. They’re good at banking.” They know we’ve made it 100 years because of a lot of good decisions we’ve made.
You’ve been involved with the bank’s annual fundraising campaign for the United Performing Arts Fund for many years. What is it about that particular organization that speaks to you? Do you have a favorite performing art?
When you go to the performing arts, it’s an uplifting experience — it makes you smile, makes you laugh, makes you think. There are a lot of wonderful charities, and it’s hard to decide where to put your time and energy and money, but the arts help round you out as a person. The performing arts bring out something that you don’t get from other aspects of your life.
I like plays. The Milwaukee Rep is probably my favorite place to see them, but we go to a lot of different shows — plays and musicals. My wife and I usually don’t read anything about what we’re going to see in advance. We just go and experience them, and get to be surprised by the results.
Two of my all-time favorites are The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. Every time those come through, I try to take them in.
Have you ever been a performer yourself?
No, no! I’m terrible at that! I played tuba in sixth grade, and that’s probably my biggest moment as a performer.