Jan. 27, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by Central Bank.

Banking unquestionably is in Barry Sommervold’s blood.

“It really is,” said Sommervold, who returned to the South Dakota banking community after two decades in the Twin Cities.

His connection to banking, though, starts many years and multiple generations before that.

“I come from a long line of bankers,” he said. “My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my dad, my uncle, my brothers, we’ve all grown up in banking.”

His great-grandfather E.F. McKellips founded a bank in Alcester. His grandfather Roger took over the bank and ran it for many years, ran for governor in 1978 and served in the state Legislature for 20 years.

And when his parents married, the banking DNA multiplied.

“My dad had married into the family. He grew up in Alcester and started at Norwest Bank in Sioux Falls out of high school, married my mom and wanted to start his own bank,” Sommervold said.

That was in Chancellor, where Sommervold was born and raised, working at the family-owned Dakota Heritage State Bank beginning the summer before he started high school in Lennox.

“My dad wanted to get me involved right away and had me doing teller work,” he said. “I was about 13, and I hated it. Dealing with cash wasn’t for me. I thought, if this is banking, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Instead, he began mowing the lawn at the bank and doing odd jobs such as shredding.

Graduation from Lennox in 1990 led him to SDSU without a clear career goal. His first banking class changed that.

“I had taken a couple economics classes and a statistics class, but the banking class stuck with me. And, by the end of my sophomore year, I knew that’s what I was going to do,” he said. “I told my dad I think banking is what I want to do, I want to come back and work with you when I graduate college.”

At the time, his two older siblings weren’t interested, so his dad was thrilled.

After five years back in Chancellor, Sommervold wanted to experience something different. When an opportunity came up in 2000 to work for a community bank in the Twin Cities, he took it.

That turned into a 21-year stay, with the eventual goal of returning to South Dakota once his daughter graduated high school.

“My whole family is here, my roots are here, and I knew it’s where I wanted to end up,” he said. “So, after my daughter graduated, I started looking hard, and it took me about a year, but then this position with Central Bank came available, and it has been a great fit.”

At Central, Sommervold’s COO role involves overseeing deposit operations, loan operations, IT, accounting and finance. Based in Sioux Falls, he reports to Iowa-based owners Tim and John Brown.

“Central is a true community bank, and that’s really my passion: community-based, relationship banking,” he said.

“That’s what I am through and through, and Central is about making things happen for our customers, one relationship at a time. Our owners are phenomenal. Tim and John are incredible to work for, and the employees I get to work with each day are absolutely amazing.”

While he’d visited the Sioux Falls area several times annually over the years, seeing the area grow – and the bank with it – is rewarding, he said.

“Central Bank has grown a lot over the years and so has Sioux Falls,” he said. “For me, it’s really exciting to see. After being in the Twin Cities for 21 years, I’m used to seeing growth and a bigger city feel, and I like what I’m seeing in Sioux Falls. There are so many great things happening here.”

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