Rob Nielsen Outlines Strategy as New Johnson Bank President

When Rob Nielsen made the move to Johnson Financial Group in 2012, he said he identified “foundational blocks” that made the opportunity “too good to pass up.”

Now 14 years later, Nielsen said he feels at home at the Racine-based organization.

His career has spanned roles in commercial banking, structured finance and strategic planning. Most recently, Nielsen was the leader of the commercial specialty group.

Earlier this month, he was named Johnson Bank’s next top leader.

Nielsen succeeds the recently retired Dan Defnet as president of Johnson Bank. He spoke with the Milwaukee Business Journal about his new role, the bank’s strategy under his leadership and his outlook for the depository.

Nielsen’s responses in the Q&A below were edited for length and clarity.

What is it like for you filling Dan’s shoes?

He was my boss for the last seven years, and so I’ve gotten to see him on all types of levels and interact with people, and his leadership that he’s provided has been phenomenal for the bank.

My goal is to continue that legacy as we move forward. That structure and that leadership, it’s been critical for us, and my goal is to make sure that we continue that.

How does Johnson Bank investing in its branches help the bank?

I think having a refresh on some of our branches as well as some new locations, it’s just trying to meet more of our customers where they're at. It’s been fun to watch that journey, and it’s exciting.

A lot of people are going away from branches, and having us invest more into the communities, that’s one of our strong pillars, is that we want to give back.

With more M&A in the market, is Johnson Bank exploring acquisitions?

If there was one that came up, I think we would certainly look at it. Our goal is to continue to grow in the state of Wisconsin and our office that we have up in Minneapolis.

Opportunistically, if something becomes available, I’m sure we would look at it. If we can get it organically, it feels like a better play to go down that route than to do acquisitions.

What areas are you hoping to build as president?

One would be if we can continue to develop our employees that we have around us so that they’re ready for that next opportunity inside, so we can hire more from internally versus getting outside. I think I’d like to continue to make some incremental improvements there...

The second piece would be continuing to look at the target customers, both on the company side and individual side, and where we think we can add more value to them, and that way it’s a win-win relationship.

As seen in Milwaukee Business Journal.