Nick Place started at St. Louis Park-based Bridgewater Bank in 2007, assuming his current role in 2015. He has helped propel Bridgewater from a young de novo to into one of Minnesota’s largest banks by asset size and one of the premier locally led commercial real estate lenders. He oversees an active loan portfolio of over $2.3 billion.

When the pandemic hit and the Small Business Administration rolled out the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Place quickly got to work; in 2020, his small but nimble team of 40 lenders and credit analysts processed more than 1,200 PPP loans totaling $180 million in an effort to support the Twin Cities.