Employee Profile: Josh Gehlen

Josh GehlenMeet Josh Gehlen, Minnesota Lakes Bank’s Senior Vice President in charge of lending. Previous to this new role, Josh’s commercial lending career took him from a large corporate bank to a well-established community bank in Hutchinson, the community in which his family flourished for several years.

“I graduated from St. Cloud State University and worked as a credit analyst for a small public company. When I left there in 2002, I began working at a large corporate bank,” Josh explained. “I learned a lot, but when I came across a job opening at a community bank in Hutchinson, I jumped at the opportunity. I was very involved in the Hutchinson community, including serving as chair of the Hutchinson school board.

“Delano is not dissimilar to Hutchinson,” Josh continued. “Both are small towns with a real sense of community despite being relatively close to the metro area. It’s important as a community banker to roll up your sleeves and get involved with your friends and neighbors, and I enjoy that.”

Josh looks forward to building a strong lending team that will continue to deliver excellent service to Minnesota Lakes Bank customers. Beyond that, he intends to help the team reach out to new customers in MNLB’s service area.

“We have a great operation here at Minnesota Lakes Bank, and we pride ourselves on being part of the community,” Josh said. “Between our locations in Delano and Mound, we have the capacity to reach a wide swath of the West Metro.

“Beyond our physical offices, our state-of-the-art banking products enable us to match what any larger banks offer while providing the service people expect from community banks,” Josh continued. “Geography is less of a barrier than ever with these products at our disposal. Coupled with our customer service, we at Minnesota Lake Bank have a competitive advantage.”

Josh and his wife, Tamarah, have two college-age children. The family has adopted three rescue dogs, all of which keep him busy when he’s not golfing, hunting, backpacking or spending quality time with his family.