VAULTING TO THE TOP. Jerry Jacobson, president and CEO of Chippewa Falls-based Northwestern Bank, was recent named Wisconsin Banker of the Year. (Submitted photo)

Gerald Jacobson, who has spent more than 45 years at Chippewa Falls-based Northwestern Bank – the last 26 of them as president – was recently named Banker of the Year by the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

Jacobson was honored at a Feb. 8 awards ceremony as part of the WBA’s Bank Executives Conference.

Rose Oswald Poels, WBA president and CEO, praised Jacobson’s long record of achievement. “He is a highly accomplished yet humble individual who leads by example in his bank, in his community, and at the state and national levels of the banking industry,” she said. 

Jacobson is known for his personal touch with staff. “As an example,” a WBA media release states, “he walks to the post office most days to get the mail. He will then sort it and hand it out to the Chippewa Falls branch employees, giving him the opportunity to greet most employees daily. He takes time out of every week to go to all Northwestern Bank locations to visit with staff.”

Jacobson joined Northwestern Bank in 1978, and since then has worked as a teller, auditor, cashier, executive vice president, and – since 1998 – president. Under his leadership, the bank has seen its assets quadruple (from $152 million to $607 million) and its net income quintuple (from $2 million to $10.7 million). He is currently serving his second term on the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Board of Directors, and previously served on the boards of the WBA and the Community Bankers of Wisconsin.

Jacobson has also distinguished himself in the Chippewa Valley by volunteering with more than two dozen community and civic organizations, and recently was named co-chairman of the HSHS/Prevea Recovery Task Force.

Read more about the award, which has been presented to one Wisconsin banker each year since 1986, at wisbank.com.