Superior Woman--Summer 2020--Final Edition

DECISION
maker
BY DALE HEMMILA
IIn life, the decisions you make may not seem momentous at the
time, but when looking back, you can sometimes pinpoint reallife
game-changers. That seems to be the case for Roxanne Daust,
currently chairman, president and chief executive officer of Range
Bank, an independent community bank with nine locations in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
For Daust, that type of decision came early in her working career
and began a process that ultimately led her to the top leadership
position of a 133-year-old banking icon in the Upper Peninsula.
“I was working as a 20-year-old waitress at the Villa Capri
(restaurant),” she recalled recently while discussing her path in the
banking world. “I had the opportunity to be a teller (at another
banking institution) and I had to question whether it was worthwhile,
because with the money they were paying, I could barely afford to
live off of, with a child; I was a single mom. So, I did decide that it
made sense to take that bank telling job, because what’s your future as
a single mother waitress? So I started off as a teller and worked (there)
for 10 years in a couple of different departments.”
Her life-changing decision has now come full circle. The Lake
Superior Community Partnership (LSCP) has named Daust the
recipient of the 2020 LSCP Distinguished Service Award. She was
recognized at the organization’s annual dinner in March.
“I am excited that Roxanne has been chosen as our Distinguished
Service Award winner,” said Amy Clickner, LSCP chief executive
officer. “She has excelled in her career and in her community. She is
a role model for our future leaders. As for the LSCP, she serves in a
leadership role and has helped set up the organization for continued
success. Over the many years of working together, I am honored to
also call her a friend.”
The path to Daust’s success and high achievement in the banking
industry was not necessarily a straight line. During her first decade
working in the banking industry, Daust finished off an accounting
and computer information systems degree at Northern Michigan
University, and her career path continued in a little different direction.
She actually ended up leaving the banking industry and went to work
at an accounting firm for a couple of years.
“I learned a lot, because I did a lot of auditing of banks and credit
unions,” she said. “I feel like it was a good two years; I liked the
experience because I learned a lot.”
Ultimately, the required travel during auditing assignments led
Daust to return to banking full-time as a better career choice.
“I had seen an ad for a cashier position at First National Bank of
Negaunee (which would ultimately become Range Bank) and I didn’t
even know what a cashier was at the time; it’s kind of an old name for
the accounting person.”
She got the job and continued to move up in her career over the
next 20 years, first as chief financial officer position, then becoming
executive vice president, and finally taking over as president in early
2018. She was promoted to chairman and CEO six months later,
when her predecessor, Ken Palmer, retired.
She credits Palmer with helping her make the moves that lead to her
current leadership position.
“Ken Palmer was a really great mentor to me,” she said. “He always
pushed me to do more and believed in me. He asked me if I wanted
to apply for the executive vice president position, and the first time, I
said no. I was happy where I was at. But as I grew more confident, I
felt that, yeah, I can do this job.
“And then we knew that this was the path that I was kind of on,
in training to take over for Ken, when he retired. Ken did a good
job of backing off on his role for the last year, so there weren’t really a
lot of surprises. I knew what I was in for, and it was a pretty natural
progression, but there is a lot of burden because the buck stops here.
The additional pressure is knowing that, ultimately, the decisionmaking,
along with the board, is up to me.”
SUMMER 2020 SUPERIORWOMAN.NET 9