Ixonia Bank has announced its expansion into the Dane County market, with plans to open a loan production office and eventually a branch in the Madison area.
John “Mike” Jones will serve as senior vice president in the Madison market. He has more than 30 years of commercial banking experience, many of them in the Madison market, and Ixonia plans to move into the Dane County market with his network and experience there. Jones previously was vice president, member business lending and deposit services at Advia Credit Union in Madison. Before that, he was president and chief executive officer of Janesville-based MidAmerica Bank, which was acquired by Advia last year. Jones also has worked in leadership positions at Bank of Prairie du Sac, Starion Financial in Madison, M&I Bank in Madison, AmCore Bank/State Bank of Mt. Horeb, and several banks in other states. He holds a bachelor’s from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and a master’s from the University of Denver.
The Ixonia-based bank indicated it planned to expand its footprint in January, when Mark Wierman was named president and chief executive officer Dan Westrope took on the role of chairman.
“We’re first going to probably have a loan production office in Madison, with Mike and probably a couple of other lenders,” Westrope said. “Mike’s an experienced guy, a very good guy and is really going to hit the ground running over there. We’re in the Lake Country, so we’re kind of halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. This will give us an opportunity to develop a clientele in Madison.”
While a final location has not yet been chosen for the loan production office, Westrope said the bank is zeroing in on Middleton, and plans to open the office in about 60 days.
“We feel that’s a dynamic and growing part of the Madison market,” he said. “We do expect that we’ll start looking immediately and planning a full-service branch in the Madison area.”
The loan office may morph into a branch, which is expected to be operational by early 2018.
Longer term, Ixonia also plans to add a new office in the City of Milwaukee. It has hired Douglas Ortyn as senior vice president of commercial lending. Ortyn, who has 29 years of commercial banking leadership experience, most recently as corporate banking market head for TCF National Bank in Milwaukee, will work out of the Ixonia headquarters for now, but will eventually lead a new Milwaukee loan production office, Westrope said. That location may end up being downtown.
“It’s time for us to do this,” he said. “We have steadily improved our company over the last few years and now’s the time, I think, to seize the market opportunity to grow bigger.”
Ixonia Bank was founded in 1918 and has expanded to 77 employees and six locations in Waukesha and Jefferson counties. In 2012, it was recapitalized by the Lubar family. Sheldon Lubar continues to serve as president and CEO of Ixonia Bancshares Inc., the bank’s holding company.
