B'Ann Dittmar

TH: I'll start by asking you a question you've probably been asked a million times. Tell me about your unusual first name.
BD: My name comes from Grandmother's nickname. Her name was Elizabeth Ann McCoy and she was a teacher in Galena. She went by B'Ann her whole life as her nickname. It was handed down to my mother. My mother is B'Ann Breeze, and it was handed down to me. I am B'Ann Nicole. My mom goes by Breeze, though.

TH: So your mother had the same nickname?
BD: Well, it was my grandmother's nickname and then she gave the name to my mom, but because her mother was using that nickname all the time, my mom lasted until about fourth grade being called the same thing as her mother and then decided, "That's enough, I'll go by Breeze," so she changed it. She's been Breeze ever since. Then when they had me, they decided to pass it down since it was unusual.

TH: I was doing some background reading and understand you grew up in the Apple Canyon Lake area. According to your parents, you weren't always real excited about living out in the country.
BD: Oh, it had advantages and disadvantages. My brother was less excited about it than I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being outside. We had a unique situation in that our parents were both teachers so they were always off with us which was very convenient. Our summers would be very different than the other kids that lived in town because they'd see each other all summer. We would essentially be away from them all summer, but the city kids would all come out. We had different sets of friends. We would have our school friends during the year and then we would have all of our city friends during the summer, which was neat. It was another social circle, I guess. We rode four-wheelers and we just played in the creek and went fishing and went to the swimming pool and all that kind of good stuff.

TH: The city friends were people from outside the immediate area who came in for the summer?
BD: Right. Because Apple Canyon is a resort area and most of the kids came from Chicago and would come with their parents for the summer or summer weekends. It was funny. We'd meet these kids and they would say, "You actually live here all the time? Where do you live?" We'd say, "Here." And then they'd say, "No, when you're not here, where do you live?" "We live here." It took a lot for people to understand that people actually live there all the time sometimes. They didn't realize there was a life outside of Chicago.

TH: At what point did you start to formulate some thoughts about what type of career you wanted to pursue?
BD: When I went to Rockford College, I had different odd jobs; then throughout college, I became a bank teller. I enjoyed that a lot. I was in a very, very busy branch. Then, when I was finishing up school, I started at a bank in Stockton as a teller. Worked there for a year. When I graduated from college, I actually applied at banks. That's how I got my first position in banking, as a commercial loan assistant. That's when I started with this bank, but I started in Pecatonica, and it was 12 years ago. I've been through the five name changes and still here today.

TH: Five name changes? Can you recite all of those?
BD: I started under Bank of Pecatonica, which was when we were all under Northwest Illinois Bank Corp. Then there was Today's Bank, which basically just brought us all under the same holding company. Then there was Mercantile Bank, Firstar Bank and then U.S. Bank.

TH: Very good. You got all five.
BD: I have a mug from each.

TH: I guess it would be safe to say that you're in rare company to be someone not even in her mid-30s yet and president of a bank. Looking back, I guess you have to reflect somewhat on how this happened so quickly. What do you attribute that to?
BD: When I started at Bank of Pecatonica, I applied for a branch manager position. I came out of college and, of course, you want a management position when you're out of college. At that time, there was a management position open and there was another position open that I didn't even know about. I went in for my second interview and the president asked me if you didn't get the branch manager position, would you be interested in a commercial lending assistant? Of course. So I didn't get hired for the branch manager position; there was someone who had more experience and they got hired. I took the other position, enjoyed it a great deal and less than a year, I took that branch manager's position. That's how it started. I remember at my first annual review having a conversation - there would be these conversations where they ask you where do you want to be in five years? That was the question my boss asked me, where do you want to be in five years? I looked at him and said, "Well, maybe not in five years, but somewhere between five and 10 years, I want your job. He looked at me and was kind like he didn't know whether to laugh or take me seriously. He took me seriously and knew that that's what I wanted to work toward. All of the senior management, what was nice is they made that known enough to the senior managers that hey, this is what her goal is and if we're going to help her get there, she's the kind of employee that we would want in that kind of position, then let's find the right kind of opportunities. So, I kind of had the track record with the bank where if there's a need or something they need fulfilled or a position that would be challenging, that they need somebody to be up and running quickly that they would come to me and say could you do this for us? I've always done that. I've worked in a number of different areas in the bank. I've worked in retail, in commercial, compliance and mortgage, management. I started out as a teller. I've done personal banking. So I have a lot that I can relate to a lot of different positions and I understand what my employees go through because I've been there. That's helpful, too. I think all those experiences culminated in being able to be a person that could do this job because I've been there.

TH: How would you describe your management style?
BD: I think I have a pretty participative management style. I'm very open and my employees know that. I ask my employees' opinions on matters. You can't always take all those opinions and use them, but I try to hear what they're saying and see what their desires are and meld that into what the ultimate decision is. That's worked well.

TH: You are a business leader, you're a woman, you're a mother, you're a wife. You'll be a mother again in February. What are the challenges that you personally are experiencing trying to juggle all those various roles?
BD: Well, first, I have a great husband, so I couldn't do it without him. Truly. We kind of have the balance figured out. It's never perfect. I have a lot of outside of the bank commitments, but we share time. One of the things we do is make family time a priority. You only get so many hours in the day with your family when you work a full-time job and have other community commitments. We make sure that from the time we get home to the time our son goes to bed, that that is his time. It's not spent doing a lot of things that we do after he goes to bed. Chores get done after he goes to bed and those kinds of things to make sure that we get some quality time with him as well. We really focus on him on the weekends and mornings and evenings to make sure that those are our times. Then we also make sure that we don't have a lot of baby-sitter time for him. We make sure that one of us is there. If I have a meeting, then Dan is there. Is Dan has softball or golf during the summer, then I'm there and I don't schedule a meeting or I can't attend meetings on those nights. It is finding that right balance. We'll add another one to the mix and kind of shake it up for awhile.

TH: What about the wider view of women in the workplace? Are things getting better, worse, or do you have any sense of that from a wider standpoint?
BD: I think as a whole, the country realizes how valuable women are to the workforce. You take a look at companies. There are many more women in leadership roles than there have ever been. I think being a parent, whether it's a father or a mother, gives you another perspective that's important and can provide maybe some additional tools in your tool belt that you may not have had before you became a parent. I think it's all in how you do approach that balance and what your priorities are. Not everybody needs to get to the top, wants to get to the top and that's fine. But I think if someone wants to be at the top, that those opportunities are there. I personally never have seen any discrimination within my company. Just more openness as to how do we make this work.

TH: You branched out to try to help engage other women in business with a Dubuque-based group and then also you co-founded another group. Tell me about that.
BD: Mary Sheahen and I - Mary Sheahen owns Wild Clover Day Spa - we had been talking, probably late last year and early this year, about this concept about bringing women together. Women like to share and learn from each other and how do we provide a forum to do that? I was part of Women's Leadership Network. She had been part of a similar organization in the Chicago area and we felt that we needed something here in Galena. What we did is formulated our ideas as to how we saw this group. Then we pulled together a diverse group of women, brought them together as a focus group, and asked them to be a part of this focus group and tell us what do you think about this idea? Do you think this would fly? Do you think people are too busy? Do you think that they're not interested? Overwhelming response said we need it, let's go for it. That focus group ended up being our board. They all jumped on and are fabulous. They have done so much to make this organization what it is. Mary and I came up with the idea, but everybody else has pushed it forward. We started the group in April, so we haven't been around that long, but we have 126 members, which is a very nice-sized group. We get great attendance. We've done a survey. We've gotten great feedback. Basically, we meet once a month, the second Wednesday of the month at The Ramada from 11:30 to 1. It's an opportunity for networking, opportunity for some learning. We bring in a speaker. And a luncheon. They have many opportunities to either promote their business or we do icebreakers to get some of that networking going, to make it comfortable if you aren't the kind of person to just walk up and introduce yourself to a number of people. They have opportunities to do that as well. We're very pleased with it and I think the group is pleased with it.

TH: It's Galena-based, or Jo Daviess County, or wherever?
BD: It's really wherever. We have some folks who drive over from Dubuque for our meeting. We have some folks coming from Southwest Wisconsin. We have people coming from Stockton. It's Jo Daviess County, Galena, but I would say that this tri-state area is where we've seen our membership come from.

TH: You are a former president of Galena Chamber of Commerce. I was interested in hearing that you had local friends during the school year and then Chicago friends during the summer. Jo Daviess County is in an unusual situation where you do have a mix of people who grew up here and then a lot of folks who come in either full-time or seasonally, primarily from the Chicago area. In a college community, sometimes you have a situation of "town-and-gown" friction. I don't know how you would describe the situation here in Galena and Jo Daviess County, but there are times when there is some friction about preservation and growth, the former city people and long-time residents. What do you make of all that? How does a community like this advance and progress with some of those dynamics?
BD: Back a few years ago, there was much more of a division between town and - I guess I don't have a good name for that ...

TH: The transplants?
BD: The transplants. I hear that all the time, the transplants. I don't particularly care for that word. I know they get called that. That division, I've seen that breakdown go away. The folks who have come here to maybe vacation have become permanent residents. They provide great value to our community. They're paying taxes like all the rest of us. They're shopping in our community. They are doing so much good community service work. Galena is a very, very active community. We have so many community organizations and all different types. We have service organizations. We have social. We have arts. There's just a lot of different areas for people to become involved. What's great is a lot of the people who are coming from the city and are becoming residents are getting very involved. These folks are fabulous volunteers and donors to important causes in our community. They're just a real important makeup, I think, of who we are. I think there's much more acceptance. I realized once when I was giving a classification talk at Rotary - which is where you get up and talk about yourself - and I was talking about my family and I looked around the room and I thought, these people don't know my family; they're not from here. But they're part of our community, very much so. Very ingrained in our community.

TH: Well, I think you mention the volunteerism and all that. It does give a special flavor to the composition of a place. Just backing up on the family piece briefly, how did you and Dan meet?
BD: Dan was from Stockton and I was from Warren. We actually didn't know each other in high school other than to see each other play sports. My basketball team, when I was a senior, we went to state finals. When a local team goes to state, a lot of the other communities come and watch your games. He was at those games. I didn't know this, but shortly after we started dating, what his mother told me was that she had picked me out back at that time as someone he should meet. Of course, he wasn't interested; he had a girlfriend. We met when I was a teller in Stockton. The gal who played on our rival - Warren and Stockton were always rivals in sports because we were so close in communities - there was a gal, Michele, she was a Kampmeier, worked there and she and I played against each other. We were rivals. We were both point guards. I said, "Well, do you know anybody I could meet?" She said, "I know a really great guy." She introduced us and we've been together ever since.

TH: Did you go back and look up his record to see if he had a good balance at the bank?
BD: I found that I had a much-more-frequent customer coming in.

TH: That seems sort of icky. Your mother-in-law picked you out?
BD: Yeah.

TH: I guess it could be worse, I suppose.
BD: She must have known something. We didn't meet until three years after that.

TH: When did you hear the story that it was your mother-in-law who spotted you at the game?
BD: I think it was after a few dates. I heard that story. I thought that was kind of interesting.

TH: Tell me about your high school athletic career. How did you do in state?
BD: We went to Elite 8 (in 1990). We played Carthage and got beat. I happened to have mono when we were down there and I didn't realize it. I was no help. I barely remember the game, honestly. I was very ill and ended up in the emergency room when I finally got back home. But it was an awesome experience. The community support was just incredible.

TH: I noted that you and your father entered a fishing tournament.
BD: Where did you find this stuff?

TH: There's this new invention; it's called the Internet. I saw a photo of you and your dad at a bass tournament this summer. You're probably about the only woman who really enters a competitive tournament, a least in the immediate area.
BD: Actually that tournament, there was another woman in it. There's another woman who lives at the lake. She enters as well. She fishes with her husband. But my dad and I have done that since I was in high school, I think. It's a lot of fun. We have a great time.

TH: So fishing would be a hobby. You mentioned reading?
BD: Mm, hmm, I enjoy reading.

TH: Other spare time activities? Not that you have much spare time.
BD: I enjoy playing volleyball. Spending time with family, obviously, is very important to me. Basically anything to do with the outdoors. BC - Before Children - I actually in the fall would go deer hunting, bow hunting actually with my dad and my brother and my husband. Did that for three seasons and did pretty well.

TH: When we started the conversation, you indicated that you had professional goals and you had some targets that you were shooting for. What's on the horizon? What goals are out there for you now?
BD: Well, I'm very happy in what I'm doing. Again, I guess my next step is - I always have to watch out for this, but my next step would be my boss' job. He's in no threat of his position.

TH: At least not until he reads this.
BD: Well, I think Liz Bulasko put it in the (Her magazine) interview and like the last sentence was, "B'Ann's now shooting for (regional president) Mike Donohue's job." I called Mike right away and said, "Mike, I'm not shooting for your job." He knows that that would be where I'd want to go next. It's a little unnerving to have everyone you work with read that, but that would be my next step, would be the regional president's position, if that ever came open. That would be my next goal. Eventually what I would like to do when I grow up is be a college professor. That's always been a dream of mine. I've taught adjunct faculty for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and for Columbia College in Freeport and greatly enjoyed that. I suppose that comes from my parents both being teachers and my grandmother being a teacher and my uncle being a teacher. It's kind of been instilled in me to teach and help other people and to have a love for lifelong learning myself. That would be an ultimate plan someday.

TH: But Mike shouldn't necessarily be nervous.
BD: No. Mike's a great boss. I couldn't ask for a better boss.