Former pro soccer player brings competitive spirit to Bell Bank

Jena Cogswell's competitive spirit — honed on national championship soccer teams and Wall Street — is coming into play as Bell Bank's new senior vice president and director of marketing.

The Mahtomedi native served as captain of the University of North Carolina's national champion soccer teams in 1999 and 2000 and played professionally before going into financial services with Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.

She believes that Bell Bank — family- and employee-owned and one of the country's largest privately held banks with more than $10 billion in assets — can compete with big publicly traded banks.

She takes over as the Fargo-based Bell pursues further growth in the Twin Cities and Phoenix areas.

Cogswell got her start as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, then was responsible for marketing strategy for J.P. Morgan's asset management business before heading up product marketing at Providence Equity Partners.

Cogswell most recently was managing director, head of product marketing and global insights at Principal Global Investors, the asset management division of Principal Financial group.

Cogswell moved back to Minnesota four years ago with her husband.

She has a bachelor's degree in communication studies from the University of North Carolina, and after college she played on the U.S. Women's National Soccer team from 1998 to 2003 and for the Boston Breakers of the Women's United Soccer Association.

Cogswell is "a respected and transformative leader who will help us connect with customers in core and new markets and continue to build our brand in regions across the country," Michael Solberg, Bell's president and CEO, said in a release.

Q: What brought you to Bell Bank?

A: I spent 17 years, a large part of that in New York City, working at larger banks and asset managers. I had always hoped that I would land someplace smaller and take the knowledge and apply it to an organization that was a little earlier in its growth trajectory. Bell's strategy is that they've always put their customers and employees first and that if they do the right things, they'll grow the right way, and that's what's happened.

Q: How will your work support growth in new markets?

A: One thing from the top down is building greater awareness of our brand. We have a great opportunity especially in these newer markets because when you look at the landscape, competitively, we have a good story to tell. From a bottom-up perspective, it gets back to the customers and understanding those touch points. When you're in an industry that's highly commoditized, it's really important that every single touch point is good.

Q: How has your athletic experience influenced your career in business?

A: You learn how to operate on a team; you learn how to compete and have high expectations but without being a jerk. You learn about accountability and time management. All these have served me well whatever I'm doing. I realized early on that if you work really hard at something and differentiate yourself there will be opportunity, and your world becomes a little bit wider than it was every time you do that.

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