The Archetype of an Extraordinary Banker

How Mick Blodnick became one of America's most accomplished bankers.

From left to right: John Maxfield, Mick Blodnick and Joe Turner. (Yes, I once wore suits and ties.)

Michael “Mick” Blodnick was the chief executive officer of Glacier Bancorp from 1998 through 2016.

Glacier was a $72 million thrift serving customers in the Flathead Valley of Northwestern Montana when it hired Mick in 1978 to manage its tellers. By the time he retired thirty-eight years later, it was a nearly $10 billion commercial bank spanning the Rocky Mountain region.

Now, of course, one of the dirtiest secrets in finance is that anyone can grow bank. That’s the power of infinite demand. The bigger challenge is creating shareholder value. And that, my friends, tends to be inversely correlated to a bank’s growth. (Remember that the next time a purported expert tells you that, “Scale is key.”)

No one in the modern era of banking, save one other banker, has balanced these objectives better than Mick.

He was a maestro at value creation.

By the time Mick retired, Glacier had generated a total shareholder return of more than 30,000 percent since going public. A $10,000 investment at the bank’s initial public offering had grown to be worth over $3 million (including dividends).

What follows is a ghost-written autobiography of Mick that I authored after spending many dozens, if not hundreds, of hours with him discussing his career. It will sound and feel different because it’s written in the first person — in his voice, that is, as if he were the author.

Those in my inner circle have read this. Now I’m sharing it with all of you. Not only will it teach you what it takes to run an extraordinary bank, it also casts light on how to lead an extraordinary life.

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