In Business: Ryan Welle to Continue Family Legacy as First National Bank Bemidji President

A dream that some business owners may have is to one day pass the family business to their children to continue the family legacy. In the case of First National Bank Bemidji, they have done just that for four generations now.

First National Bank has seen some changes over the course of its history, from when the Warfield brothers bought it in 1931 to when it became an employee-owned bank in 1985. Since 1945, though, the Welles have been leading the charge. Tom Welle has served as president for over 30 years, and now, his son Ryan will take over after spending 12 years with the institution.

“It’s an honor, it’s a commitment,” said Ryan Welle. “For me, it’s been a long journey. You know, being a fourth generation at this place, in this family has always been a big part of my life. And so it’s, you know, I guess an accomplishment in some sense of imagination.”

But just because Ryan is president, that doesn’t mean he gets to sit back and collect checks all day.

“As an organization, we’ve always kind of do things a little bit differently than other banks,” explained Ryan. “So we don’t have a president that just does administrative presidential work. I’m a president, you know, in title, but majority of my time is spent working as a financial advisor and overseeing the bank’s securities portfolio, helping out our commercial loans and commercial loan officers.

Ryan, however, is not the only fourth-generation family member that works at First National Bank.

“[In] executive management, we promoted Amy Haskell as well as Georgia Del Favero,” said Ryan. “My cousin Hugh is still around acting as CEO for the organization, and he’s got close to 30-some-five-ish years of total experience, and so a ton of history in there, and we’ve been blessed to have a lot of other longstanding employees.”

Ryan also says he wouldn’t be where he is today without everyone around him.

“I’m heavily dependent on everyone in this organization,” he emphasized. “More than anything else, it’s always been much more of a team atmosphere around here. It’s never been about a single person by any stretch of the imagination. And so that’s still very much the case, and believe me, I need them a heck of a lot more than they need me.”

After all the years of hard work, though, just because you make it to the top doesn’t mean the focus should change.

“At the end of the day, you know, the president role for my dad and my cousin Hugh before me, is just that, it’s just kind of a title, you know?” said Ryan. “I mean, we come in, we continue to do the same thing, which is just kind of focus on the customer and putting our energies in that and our focus on that. And, you know, the president piece of it is just kind of a sidebar more than anything else.”

A fifth generation of the Welle family is also working at First National Bank Bemidji. Tom’s grandson, Carson Liapis, serves as the project specialist for the company.