Lauritzen Corporation
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Lauritzen Corporation is a financial and interstate bank holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Lauritzen Corporation currently has bank branches in Nebraska and Iowa, and has total assets of approximately $1.50 billion [1]. In addition to banks, Lauritzen Corporation has five holding companies and 15 insurance or financial companies. Lauritzen Corporation has an approximately 28% voting share in First National of Nebraska, Inc. [2]. All told, it is one of the 50 largest banks in the United States ranked by total deposits [3], and is ranked among the top 200 United States banks by The Banker financial journal [4].
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[edit] Lauritzen family
[edit] John Lauritzen
John Lauritzen was born on March 28, 1917, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his diploma from Blake County Day School in Hopkins, Minnesota, where he was captain of both the hockey and golf teams. After John graduated from high school in 1936, he attended Princeton University. He left the university after his sophomore year.
In 1949, after three years of correspondence courses and six weeks of classroom work on campus, he received his diploma from the University of Wisconsin's Graduate School of Banking.
Ten years earlier, he married T.L. Davis' daughter, Elizabeth Ann. T.L. Davis had a large part in the history of First National of Nebraska.
In 1943, he began working for the Davis family banks, first at the North Side Bank in Florence and later at the Washington County Bank in Blair.[5]
[edit] Bruce Lauritzen
Bruce Lauritzen was born on June 21, 1943. After his freshman year at Westside High School, he transferred to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. This was the same Episcopal College Preparatory Institute from which his grandfather, T.L. Davis, had graduated from 60 years earlier.
In 1965, Bruce received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University, and then his master's in business administration from the University of Virginia in 1967. He met his wife, Kimball Bowles during his junior year at Princeton, and they were married in November 1965.
Bruce seriously considered a job with the North Carolina National Bank in Charlotte. He and his father discussed his future career options, and John felt that it was the right time for Bruce to begin working at First National and that if he didn’t like it there, he could go somewhere else later.
Bruce began working at First National on August 14, 1967. He became president of Farmers Savings Bank in Shelby, Iowa at the age of 26. In 1971, he personally purchased Sibley State Bank and made himself president, and in the following year, he purchased Landmands National Bank and negotiated for the family the acquisition of Harlan County Bank and became president. At the age of 29, he was the president of four banks.
By this time, he had two daughters, Margaret and Blair. In 1976, his son, Clarkson, was born and Bruce also purchased the Crawford County Bank. [6]
[edit] History
John Lauritzen decided to go into business for himself, and in 1947 while he was assistant cashier and months before he became an assistance vice president, he sold his house for $14,000, and the site of his future home for $3,000. He used this $17,000 and another $17,000 in borrowed money to purchase a bank in Emerson, Iowa. At the age of 28, he became the youngest bank president in the country.
Five years later, he purchased the First State Bank of Loomis, Nebraska. At the time, he could only afford to purchase 51 percent of the shares. The current owners of the bank told Lauritzen that he would need to by 100 percent or nothing at all. He then purchased the bank and then quickly re-sold the remaining 49 percent. [7]
After the death of T.L. Davis' in 1955, Lauritzen acquired control of the Washington County Bank, in 1956, the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Bloomfield (1958) and the Burt County State Bank in Tekamah (1961). In 1958, he formed what could be called the forerunner of today's Lauritzen Corporation to oversee his rapidly expanding holdings. Lauritzen then abruptly resigned from the First National to devote all of his energies to his growing chain of small banks. [8]
Lauritzen had been appointed to the board of directors in 1953 and promoted to senior vice president three years after that. Members of First National's management team refused to accept his resignation. Both sides agreed that Lauritzen would work for First National half time, at half pay, and half time for his own string of banks. [9]
[edit] Ownership
Lauritzen Corporation is privately held primarily by the Lauritzen family, with Bruce R. Lauritzen exercising sole investment and voting power which he shares investment and voting power with his mother, Elizabeth D. Lauritzen [10]. Many members of the Lauritzen family are associated with the individual companies within the Lauritzen Corporation.
Bruce R. Lauritzen is Chief Executive Officer of Lauritzen Corporation, as well as Chairman of First National of Nebraska, Inc., First National Bank of Omaha, and more than a dozen other banks and bank holding companies operating in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota, Kansas, Colorado, and Texas. His combined organizations have more than $20 billion in assets and 7,500 employees in 31 states [11].
[edit] Banking subsidiaries
[edit] Crawford County Bank
- Branch in Iowa: Denison
Crawford County Bank started operations in 1927, and has maintained the same name since they opened their doors. [12]
[edit] Farmers & Merchants State Bank
- Branches in Nebraska: Bloomfield, Crofton, Center, Hartington, Niobrara, and South Yankton
Farmers and Merchants State Bank was chartered in 1890. As they have grown over the years, they have taken pride in being a family owned and orientated bank. [13].
[edit] First State Bank
First State Bank opened their doors for business in 1886. Their first office was located in a hardware store office. In 1938, First State Bank's assets were the largest of any town in Nebraska with a population of 1,000 or less. The Lauritzen family purchased First State Bank in 1952. First State Bank added a branch in Alma by purchasing the Harlan County Bank in 2006. [14]
[edit] Houghton State Bank
[edit] Landmands National Bank
- Branches in Iowa: Audubon and Kimballton
Landmands National Bank has a mission "to be the premier financial institution in its trade area, committed to long-term growth and profitability, while taking the lead in the area's economic vitality." [15]
[edit] Shelby County State Bank
Shelby County State Bank has been serving the financial needs of Shelby County since 1894. [16]
[edit] Sibley State Bank
- Branch in Iowa: Sibley
[edit] Washington County Bank
Washington County Bank first opened for business on April 5, 1904, in the town of Washington, Nebraska as Washington State Bank. The bank merged with the Kennard State Bank of Kennard in May 1930. On July 1, 2933, Kennard State Bank moved to Blair and opened as Washington County Bank. John R. Lauritzen acquired control of Washington County Bank in 1955, three years before forming the Lauritzen Corporation. In 2004, the bank completed a merger with their sister bank, Burt County State Bank, in Tekamah.[17] In 2007, Washington County Bank opened their third branch in Omaha.
[edit] York State Bank
Dean Sack obtained a charter for a new bank in 1943, and opened their doors on July 13. Just after the opening of York State Bank, Sack charted the Henderson State Bank in October 1944, and another bank in Benedict, Nebraska the same year. York State Bank was sold to the Lauritzen Corporation in 1995, and continues to support the education, industrial and agricultural aspects of York County today.
[edit] Non-banking subsidiaries
[edit] See also
- First National of Nebraska, Inc. -- Bruce Lauritzen's secondary ownership
- Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha's Botanical Center, made possible through the philanthropy of the Lauritzen family.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ FDIC Federal Register Citations http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/federal/04cSIFFORDcra0517.html
- ^ Federal Register Online via GPO Access - See note C.2. - http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-17425.htm
- ^ Source: FDIC (as published in The New York Job Source) http://nyjobsource.com/banks.html
- ^ The Banker http://www.thebanker-database.co.uk/ranking-results.asp?rid=4&year=2003&sortby=12#;return%20false
- ^ Szmrecsanyi, Dr. Stephen: "The First National Bank Story", page 49. First National Bank of Omaha, 1996
- ^ Szmrecsanyi, Dr. Stephen: "The First National Bank Story", First National Bank of Omaha, 1996
- ^ Szmrecsanyi, Dr. Stephen: "The First National Bank Story", page 49. First National Bank of Omaha, 1996
- ^ Szmrecsanyi, Dr. Stephen: "The First National Bank Story", page 52. First National Bank of Omaha, 1996
- ^ Szmrecsany, Dr. Stephen: "The First National Bank Story", page 52. First National Bank of Omaha, 1996
- ^ SEC – EDGAROnline - Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management - see also footnote 1 - http://sec.edgar-online.com/2002/04/30/0000912057-02-017442/Section10.asp
- ^ (nd) About Us, First National Bank Omaha. Retrieved 6/7/2008.
- ^ About Us, Crawford County Bank http://www.crawfordcountybank.com/045/html/en/about_us.html Retrieved 2/9/08.
- ^ About Us, Farmers and Merchants State Bank http://www.fandmstatebank.com/036/html/en/about_us.html Retrieved 2/9/08.
- ^ About Us, First State Bank http://www.fsbloomis.com/067/html/en/aboutus/ Retrieved 2/9/08.
- ^ About Us, Landmands National Bank http://www.landmands.com/014/html/en/about_us/about_us.html Retrieved 2/9/08.
- ^ Shelby County State Bank - Banking For Your Life! http://www.scsbnet.com/about_shelby_county_state_bank/about_shelby_county_state_bank.html Retrieved 2/9/08.
- ^ Washington County Bank History, Washington County Bank http://www.washingtoncountybank.com/022/html/en/community/bankhistory.html Retrieved 2/9/08.
