In December of 2022, Midwest Bank changed their designation from a bank holding company to a financial holding company, one step in the continued growth and ongoing succession plans locally as Aaron Jensen has been named the 18th President of Midwest Bank, explains Chief Executive Officer Chris Gavin:
“We have been in the insurance business since 1998 and have been growing our wealth management and trust divisions. We have been growing and are very fortunate that we have a great team. This succession plan that we are implementing now, sets it up for Aaron to come in to be the President of Midwest Bank and I will be focusing more on the holding company activities going forward and exploring different growth opportunities that we might have there. Very excited. We have a great team that enables us to do this and it is nice to have this luxury.”
Gavin will remain CEO of Midwest Bank and will also be taking on the role as President of Western Illinois Bancshares, which is the parent company of Midwest Bank.
As 18th President of Midwest Bank in its 153-year history, Jensen was first hired on in February of 1995, where he has advanced from a Trust Officer to Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, and will now oversee the strategic direction of Midwest Bank, including promotions among staff:
“With the beginning of the year, we had changes for four individuals. First, Andrew Lewis in our accounting area, has been promoted to an Accounting Officer. He does a lot of work for us in a number of areas and some base accounting, as well as accounts payable and those types of duties. Also in the accounting area, Riley Cavanaugh is being promoted to an Investment Officer. That is as a result of me sharing some of my responsibilities. He will be taking over investment management and interest rate risk for the bank. Riley is a CPA as well. In our trust area, Brooke Anderson is being promoted to an Assistant Trust Officer. Brooke has been with the organization and originally started on the insurance side and has now moved into the trust area after graduation. Last but not least, Jenny Gullstrand is being promoted to Marketing Manager. She has been working in our marketing area along with Sara Bockelman, one of our executive management folks, on the marketing side.”
The other executive positions within Midwest Bank are Jenny Anderson as Chief Financial Officer, Sara Bockelman as Chief Retail Officer, Matt Gillen as Chief Credit Officer, who has also been appointed as Market President for Warren and Henderson Counties, and Mike Bell, who is the Market President for the Quad Cities will add Mercer County to his responsibilities.
