Bell Bank's new product director a 'quarterback' for strategy, development of financial tools

Laura Orcutt is applying her extensive banking industry experience to serve as an organizational "quarterback" as senior vice president/director of product at Bell Bank.

Orcutt most recently was executive vice president/head of treasury management product services at Wells Fargo, where she worked in product management and treasury management for more than three decades.

In her newly created role at Bell Bank, Orcutt will oversee strategy, development and introduction of financial products.

Orcutt has focused throughout her career on payments — via cash, cards, checks, wire and the Automated Clearing House Network (ACH), which handles direct deposits and online bill payments. She previously was on teams that received two payment-related patents, including one for converting checks to electronic payments, and has achieved permanent ACH professional accreditation.

Financial institutions have had to accelerate payment innovation because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Orcutt said, including helping businesses transition from printing checks on site to making electronic payments.

Orcutt said she learned about Bell Bank from friends, some longtime customers and others who have gone to work there.

Orcutt's office is at Bell Plaza in Bloomington but she works throughout Bell's divisions and its full-service locations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Arizona. Bell Bank, with headquarters in Fargo, is among the nation's largest independently owned banks and has more than $9 billion in assets.

"We're very proud to have Laura choose to join our team," Michael Solberg, Bell's president and chief executive, said in a release. "Her experience and insights, as well as her ability to collaborate with divisional and regional leaders, will help us continue to offer not only the personal service we're known for but also the tools and experiences our customers need to manage the financial services they use."

Q: What brought you to Bell Bank?

A: Their great reputation and they want to grow. Their family atmosphere. They're very dedicated to quality, to make sure that the customer's experience is as good as it can be and that there's consistency in how we deliver products and services. They value technology; that was another deciding factor. They promote giving back to the community. It's a good way to run a bank and I wanted to be part of it. My passion for people and payments is a great fit with Bell Bank's overall culture.

Q: What led Bell Bank to create this role for you?

A: I've had a lot of industry as well as individual, very large financial institution experience: from working in technology, working in operations, working in product to working on the front line in a service and implementation role. That experience along with knowing all the rules and regulations associated with payments they decided would be a really interesting addition to Bell Bank.

Q: How will you contribute to Bell's growth?

A: I'm going to help be the quarterback. A person to go to to say, does this make sense and can we even do this. It's going to be a lot of coordination with the strategic plans of each division, what are things we can do across sections to help them meet their goals, meet the objectives of our customers and their growth goals. I'll be working on everything from vision and strategy to how do we develop (a product), build it or buy it, and how do we execute on the implementation to make sure that it's operating efficiently and meeting our expectations.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.