Ken Karels has served as Great Western Bancorporation, Inc.’s President
and Chief Executive Officer and on its board of directors since 2010, as well
as the President and Chief Executive Officer and on the Board of Directors of
Great Western Bancorp, Inc. since its formation in July 2014. Mr. Karels is also
the President and Chief Executive Officer of Great Western Bank and serves on
the boards of directors of Great Western Bank and our other subsidiaries. Mr.
Karels’ duties include overall leadership and executive oversight of Great
Western Bank. Mr. Karels has 38 years of banking experience and expertise in all
areas of bank management and strategic bank acquisitions. He has served in several
different capacities at Great Western Bank since February 2002, including Regional
President and Chief Operating Officer for the bank’s branch distribution
channel including agriculture, business and retail lending and deposits functions.
During his executive tenure, Mr. Karels has helped grow Great Western Bank from
$5.2 billion in assets at September 30, 2009 to nearly $10 billion in assets today.
Before joining Great Western Bank, Mr. Karels served as President and Chief Executive
Officer at Marquette Bank, Milbank, SD, where he was employed for 25 years.
Peter Chapman has served as Great Western Bancorporation, Inc.’s Chief
Financial Officer and Executive Vice President since 2013 and on its board of
directors from January 2013 until October 2014, as well as the Chief Financial
Officer and Executive Vice President of Great Western Bancorp, Inc. since its
formation in July 2014. Mr. Chapman is also the Chief Financial Officer and
Executive Vice President of Great Western Bank. Mr. Chapman has over 20 years
of industry experience and is responsible for all aspects of our financial and
regulatory reporting together with planning and strategy and treasury management
of our balance sheet. From 2010 until he was appointed as our Chief Financial
Officer in November 2012, Mr. Chapman served as the General Manager, Finance
Performance Management & Non Traded Businesses for NAB’s Wholesale
Banking business. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Chapman served as Head of Financial
Control at NAB and was responsible for oversight and delivery of NAB’s
external financial reporting and internal management reporting. From 2004 to
2007, Mr. Chapman was Manager, and then Senior Manager, in NAB’s Group
Accounting Policy team. From 1995 to 2004, Mr. Chapman held various roles with
Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Audit Division, including Group
Manager of its Melbourne, Australia office’s Financial Services Audit
practice, and he was seconded to Ernst & Young’s New York office from
1998 to 2000. Mr. Chapman has been a Chartered Accountant with the Institute
of Chartered Accountants Australia since 1998 and is currently a Fellow of the
Institute.
Stephen Ulenberg has served as Great Western Bancorporation, Inc.’s Chief
Risk Officer and Executive Vice President since 2012. Mr. Ulenberg has also
served as the Chief Risk Officer and Executive Vice President of Great Western
Bank since 2010. Mr. Ulenberg is responsible for ensuring that risk is effectively
managed and overseen across our enterprise. Mr. Ulenberg has over 30 years of
experience in the financial services industry, including a 24-year career with
NAB and its subsidiaries, where he has worked in a number of senior positions
including frontline business leadership in commercial and wholesale banking,
risk management and major, cross-organizational strategic initiatives—at
both Bank of New Zealand (a NAB subsidiary) and NAB. Immediately prior to joining
Great Western Bank, Mr. Ulenberg was responsible for the leadership of Bank
of New Zealand’s enterprise risk management capability across a $60 billion
lending portfolio. In that role, Mr. Ulenberg provided related analytics, risk
reporting, portfolio metrics, risk insights, asset quality information and oversight
of decision analysis, managed provisioning, risk appetite and advanced Basel
models and led ongoing enhancements to Bank of New Zealand’s risk management
capabilities.
Allen Shafer has served as the Executive Vice President of Support Services
of Great Western Bank since August 2012. Mr. Shafer is responsible for our operations
and information technology groups, along with our project management office.
Mr. Shafer joined Great Western Bank in December 2002 and has held the positions
of Chief Credit Officer, Regional President and Group President at Great Western
Bank. Mr. Shafer has 30 years of banking experience. Prior to joining Great
Western Bank, he served as Market Manager at Wells Fargo after Wells Fargo acquired
Brenton Bank in Iowa. At Brenton Bank, Mr. Shafer held a variety of positions
from 1991 to 2001, including President of Business Banking and Regional Manager
of Commercial Banking. In 1987, Mr. Shafer joined First Interstate Bank, Seattle,
WA, as a Commercial Banking Manager. Mr. Shafer began his banking career in
1985 at Citizen’s Bank and Trust, Belle Plaine, IA.
Doug Bass has served as a Regional President of Great Western Bank since 2010
and is also an Executive Vice President of Great Western Bank. Mr. Bass oversees
all of our banking operations within the states of Arizona, Colorado, Iowa,
Kansas and Missouri, as well as our wealth management and mortgage banking business
lines. In total, Mr. Bass has over 32 years of banking experience. Mr. Bass
has worked in various capacities with Great Western Bank since 2009 and has
expertise in all areas of bank management within Great Western Bank. Before
joining Great Western Bank, Mr. Bass served as President of First American Bank
Group. Previously Mr. Bass served in various capacities over 15 years with Firstar
Corporation, which is now known as US Bank, including as President and Chief
Executive Officer of Firstar’s Sioux City and Council Bluffs operations
in Western Iowa and as Manager of Correspondent Banking for its Eastern Iowa
operations, which also included responsibility for commercial banking and agribusiness
lending.
Bryan Kindopp has served as a Regional President of Great Western Bank since
2011 and is also an Executive Vice President of Great Western Bank. Mr. Kindopp
oversees all of our banking operations within the states of South Dakota and
Nebraska. In these two states, Mr. Kindopp is responsible for branch operations
of 76 of our locations and approximately 600 of our employees. Mr. Kindopp has
24 years of banking experience. Mr. Kindopp has expertise in all areas of bank
management and strategic bank acquisitions and has served in several different
capacities at Great Western Bank since 2001. Mr. Kindopp’s roles have
included Market President and Group President for our bank’s branch distribution
channel for the Northeastern region of South Dakota. In these roles, Mr. Kindopp
had responsibility for agriculture and commercial business and retail lending
and deposit functions. Before joining Great Western Bank, Mr. Kindopp served
as Vice President and Market Manager for three years at Marquette Bank, Kimball,
SD, where he was employed for a total of ten years.
Great Western Bancorp Inc currently has 1475 employees.
