TH:: So that people better understand the relationship between Heartland and DB&T, perhaps you could give you an overview of the structure.
JS: Heartland was formed effective in 1982. At that time, the only asset underneath Heartland was Dubuque Bank & Trust. We were a one-bank holding company. From there, we went on to acquire - we prefer to say joined because, quite honestly, that's how we view it - Key City Bank in 1988. Farley State Bank joined us in 1989. Galena (Ill.) State Bank, was really the first one that we did merge. We left that as a stand-alone bank. Through them we became a multi-bank holding company with banks in Dubuque and Galena. From there, we went on to have a bank in Keokuk, First Community Bank. We then formed a bank in Rockford, Ill., which we call Riverside Community Bank. What's unique about our structure is that we are very focused on having independent community banks within each location. So we have an independent board and president that is capable of making decisions on the site rather than having to refer back to Dubuque, Iowa. That's really what we sold in Rockford. Let's start a bank with a community aspect, so Riverside Community Bank was formed in 1995. Right now it's about a $170 million bank.

HEARTLAND HOLDINGS The subsidiaries of Dubuque-based Heartland Financial USA, Inc. Community Banking Dubuque Bank & Trust. Galena (Ill.) State Bank and Trust Co., with offices in Galena and Stockton, Ill. First Community Bank, with offices in Keokuk, Iowa, and Carthage, Ill. Riverside Community Bank, based in Rockford, Ill. Wisconsin Community Bank, with offices in Fitchburg, Cottage Grove, Middleton and Monroe, Wis. Wisconsin Business Bank, a branch of Wisconsin Community Bank. Offices in Sheboygan and Green Bay, Wis., and Minneapolis. New Mexico Bank & Trust. Arizona Bank & Trust, with offices in Mesa and Chandler. Rocky Mountain Bank, with eight offices across Montana. Consumer Finance Citizens Finance, with offices in Dubuque; Madison and Appleton, Wis.; and Rockford, Ill. Fleet Management ULTEA, Inc., a fleet management company, has offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wis.; and Chicago. Investment Banking HTLF Capital Corp., an investment-banking firm, has offices in Denver, Colo., and Blue Springs, Mo.

TH:: And that was started from scratch.
JS: From scratch. We then went on to acquire a bank in Cottage Grove, Wis. We have since acquired a facility of M&I in Madison and have since put up a location in Fitchburg. We now call that Wisconsin Community Bank; it has another location in Monroe, which we bought from Bank One. We also have a branch of Wisconsin Community Bank which we refer to as Wisconsin Business Bank. That's very focused on Small Business Association loans and rural development loans. From there, we'd always been looking in the southwest, primarily a neighbor of Butch's by the name of Ernie Nedder. He used to be in town. Remember Ernie?

TH:: Sure.
JS: Ernie was, as you know, an exec at Brown Publishing. When Brown Publishing was sold, he was head of the sales. He ended up spending time in Tucson. He kept saying, "You know your service in Dubuque in outstanding." He said, "Why don't you come down to the Southwest?" So Butch and I made numerous trips down to Tucson trying to find a way to get a bank started in Tucson.

TH:: And you only went in the wintertime.
JS: Of course we did. Even though we're crummy golfers, we still went in the winter. Never did find anything in Tucson, but by coincidence, one of our directors in Keokuk had a development down in Albuquerque. He had me talk with the guy he was working with. We formed a group and developed a structure that we're still using, which is that we sold 20 percent of the entity to local key people in the community and we retained 80 percent. They grew that for five years, at which point we valued the entire entity as if it was going to be sold and then we bought out the minority using our stock, actually is was 100 percent our stock, half of it was at their election and the other half at our election. They chose 100 percent Heartland stock. So now we own 100 percent of an entity down in Albuquerque. Actually, it has 12 locations throughout New Mexico. Right now it's just short of $400 million in assets.

TH:: That $400 million. How does that compare to DB&T?
JS: DB&T right now is about $750 million in assets. So it's about 60 percent of its size.

TH:: But Albuquerque was totally a start-up?
JS: Well, we did acquire a bank in Clovis, N.M., which is about $100 million. So organic growth, as the market makers like to refer to it, is about $300 million after five years, which is still pretty darn good. We layered the same concept into Arizona last year. In August of last year, we opened a bank in Mesa, Ariz. Same concept, sell approximately 20 percent of the organization to a local group of key people, 80 percent we retain. We provide them all the back shop resources and then we provide them an exit strategy. A lot of these start-up banks, they get it started, but if you want to get your money out ever, how is that facilitated? Well, they know in our organization that they have an exit strategy after five years. If they elect our stock, we now have a publicly traded stock that they can go into. And that bank, after they opened in August, they're about $53 million, so it's really had some rapid growth. We just opened a second location in Chandler, Ariz. And now we'll be opening a third location in Scottsdale, very near the Biltmore. That was fueled primarily because we are adding a wealth management company called Colonial Trust. We agreed to purchase that, which will close in July of this year.

TH:: And you've got something going into Colorado.
JS: Montana. It's confusing because it's called Rocky Mountain Bank. It's about a $360 million organization headquartered in Billings, Mont. They have eight locations throughout Montana. We do see it really starting to take off. With that, we'll be the 138th largest bank holding company. Just to round it out, we do have Citizens Finance as part of the group. So you have this holding company called Heartland and we have eight banks underneath it. And then we have three, what we refer to as non-bank subs. We have Citizens Finance, of which we have a branch here in Dubuque.

TH:: And what does Citizens Finance do?
JS: Primarily smaller loans. Loans granted under the industrial loan license. It's kind of like a Norwest Finance, if you will.

TH:: What's ahead for Heartland?
JS: We budget five years forward. And our stated goal is we're going to double our earnings and double our assets every five years. So in this timeframe from 1989 to '93, we were up 163 percent. Then, 1994-98, we really went out and aggressively expanded our franchise. And that's one thing that we told the market makers as a whole: "Hey, if you want a quarter-to-quarter improvement in earnings, don't look to Heartland. But if you want long-term sustained growth of both the assets and income, we're a great bet to make." We were investing in Albuquerque, we were investing in Wisconsin, we were investing in Rockford, it held back our earnings to some extent. But then from 1999 to 2003, we're up 100 percent in that time period. The same thing with net earnings per share. Look at assets. There's that growth goal as indicated.

TH:: What line of work were your parents involved in?
JS: My mother didn't work outside the home. She said we (six kids) were enough for her as pets, so she said no pets. My father was director of purchasing at Eska Co. You know Eska.

TH:: The motorboat company.
JS: Yeah. Well, they made outboard motors and snowblowers for a time and some other ventures. Closed in 1987, 88. At that point, my father was 64, 65 years old and he could have retired, but my mother said she wasn't going to have any of that. So he became a traveling salesman, actually a manufacturer's rep at that point. He did that until he was 77, 78 and died at 79.

TH:: Who did he sell for?
JS: A manufacturer's rep, so he represented several companies around town, including Lund Manufacturing, Uelner Tool. He knew the industry, having been with Eska for a number of years. So know that, he knew who was going to need what as they went through the process. He walked the talk and went out and covered a radius of probably 200 miles around Dubuque.

TH:: Did you feel that you picked up knowledge about the business world or business values from your father?
JS: I think so. You know, invariably, when he would come home from the office, he would be recounting his day, so you'd hear the nuances of his interaction with the various suppliers that he was constantly dealing with, the challenges that you'd hear about. I think I picked up some of the positive views of life from actually both of them, but surely Dad always had a saying to work you through the tough spots. I think he dealt with himself or the problem situations in the same way. I think he had a pretty positive disposition, had a positive outlook on life and that's certainly one thing that I carry forward, or try to. Talk to people around here. We'll see how that works.

TH:: Yeah, that will be next.
JS: Interesting question. I think he did, in his own subtle way, layer a lot of that in. Dealing honestly with people and doing what you say that you'll do. Dealing honestly with people, I think, is probably one of the things that I recall.

TH:: You mentioned that you played football at Wahlert. But you didn't say much about playing time. Did they just let you go to the games?
JS: Yeah, they let me go to the games. My dad's story was, coach would ask me, "What would you do in that play" and I'd say, "move down to the other end of the bench and get a better look at it." I played guard in high school. I did thoroughly enjoy football. It's a great sport; it's a great team sport. Enjoyed that aspect quite a bit. We weren't probably the most successful team that you've ever seen, but it was a good group of people to be associated with.

TH:: Being involved in a team or group activity like football, did you learn some things there that you might apply now to your business?
JS: I think you do. I think regardless, and I think "team" is overused in a lot of cases in business anymore, but even though it's overused I think it's still pretty evident what needs to go on within any business. You've got to make sure that, one, everybody's pulling their own weight. Two, you're giving everybody hopefully a fair shot at what's going on at the same time. Let's make sure everybody has a chance to star too, you know. Acknowledge everyone's contribution to the team effort. I think my presence here in the last four years, really I think that's what we were trying to do. We did it in several different ways. But there's no "I" in "team." We say that quite often. I think we're pretty well committed to that in this organization. Certainly, we have the people that have to set the pace, but everybody in this organization is appreciated and also is expected to contribute.

TH:: When you were growing up, what did you think you might like to do for a career? Or did you think much about it?
JS: I don't know if I thought much about it. I recall one time that I had some interest in golf. I think I told my mother, "I'm not going to be a banker for goodness sake." Probably the first inclination of being an accountant, which is my background, was my brother-in-law Tom Hanley, who was a CPA with McGladrey. That had some intrigue for me. The whole experiences he had as a CPA with Arthur Anderson in Chicago for awhile. Then he went to work for McGladrey in Cedar Rapids. I think that was probably when I first said that had some possibilities for me. Tom actually left the CPA business and went back and got his theology degree from Loras. Now he works with the diocese.

TH:: So about what age would you have been?
JS: I guess I was probably about 12, 13 years old.

TH:: Really? Fairly early.
JS: Oh, I think so. I started taking some accounting classes in high school, but when I went to UNI, I declared myself as an accounting major.

TH:: After you graduated from UNI, you went into accounting?
JS: No. Between my junior and senior year, I interned with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is the primary regulator for national banks. It was based out of Cedar Falls. I was on the road doing that about 90 percent of the time. If you've never been to the Lilac Lanes in West Union, Iowa, you haven't lived. It was a nice exposure. It really allowed me, I think, to get a semblance of what - we use the term in college - the "real world," in what's coming down and interface with people.

TH:: Would you say that you've had a mentor? You've mentioned a few names, but is there someone who's...
JS: Well, certainly Butch. We've worked together for the 20 years. It's been a very good relationship. I think we work very well together. He certainly would be a mentor. And probably No. 1 mention, quite honestly. My parents were tremendous role models, throughout my life and continue to be that. Other ones on the board - Jim Schmid would be a great asset. Jim's the one that encouraged me to be the president of the bank. Another one, two other one's I guess I'd suggest is Mark Falb. Mark has a tremendous business mind and really has an ability to focus on the key aspects of many different things.

TH:: And he's a director.
JS: He's a director of both the bank and the company. Most recently, he is the chair of DB&T, so I worked more closely with him as a board member when I was the president of DB&T and enjoyed that as well. Probably the final one I'd throw out as mentor and friend is (brother-in-law) Dick Gregory. His ability to deal with people and the way he views the world has been very additive.