Posted by Phil Keithahn on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 @ 11:00 AM
How many times have you had a conversation with someone and you felt or thought that the discussion was all about them?
In this, my second blog post, I hope that you will bear with me as I share some information "about me."
Phil "Monty" Keithahn (pronounced Ki-ton instead of Monty Kython) is the primary shareholder, Chairman, & CEO for ProGrowth Bank. However, what he really wanted to do when he was growing up was to be an Olympic wrestling champion (like Dan Gable) and play professional football for the Minnesota Vikings (like Alan Page).
Even though he was "too small and too slow" for professional football, the dream lived on until Phil suffered a life-changing knee injury midway through his senior season at Carleton College. At that point, his "higher board scores" and comeback approach to life enabled him to gain acceptance to hbs.edu. Phil also benefited from the HBS "geographically diverse acceptance strategy", since he was actively involved in a broad range of activities in a private, rural Minnesota liberal arts college.
Upon graduating from HBS, Phil returned to Minnesota where he worked for Norwest Bank and Norwest Corporate Finance for 7 years. Tiring of life in the big city, the politics of a big company, having recently married, and ready to run his own show, Phil and his wife, Sue, returned to his mother's hometown of Gaylord, Minnesota to pursue a career devoted to coaching, counseling, and mentoring people, spearheading community development efforts, and yes, running ProGrowth Bank with his wife, brother, and friends.
When he's not at work or supporting his family's activities, Phil can usually be found working with Boy Scouts, leading the STRIVE program for Rotary, serving as Treasurer for the Gaylord United Church of Christ, lifting weights, reading, travelling, wrestling (painfully!) with his son, Brit, or enjoying his daughter's (Lauren) sing choir, band, and dance concerts.
Phil has travelled around the world and is especially fond of India, where his father grew up during his grandfather's 50+ years as a missionary. Phil is proud of his heritage as a "Minnesota MuttTM", resulting from his ancestry of ¼ Swede, ¼ German, ¼ English, 1/8 Scotch-Irish, and 1/8 French-Canadian. Phil's parents were both ministers and his four grandparents had careers ranging from banking and education to medicine and ministry/mission, Phil has used the guidance received from these "heroes at home" to craft a community-based banking organization that values becoming worthy of the trust that our customers place in us each day.
So that's my one (and only?!) blog post "about me." While future blog posts might include stories from my life, they will be presented with the goal of helping people. For it is....
ALL ABOUT YOU!