Security First Bank of North Dakota is Putting People First

Sarah reflects fondly on her first memories of working in the bank. Her first official job was crawling under an accidentally locked vault door when she was three years old to retrieve the vault keys. Growing up, she helped build floats, shred documents, clean the bank, mow the grass, and whatever else needed doing. Much like her father, Jim Goetz, who started in the teller line in 1968 at age 17, Sarah received her first official paycheck working as a teller in 1995, when she was 14 years old.

The 90s were a busy time at Security First Bank. Jim was leading the bank as he merged their Center and New Salem offices into one bank and then expanded into Mandan. The Mandan office opened for business in 2000 with the Bismarck office following in 2004. “I loved working in the teller line, as well as in backroom operations. When I left North Dakota for college, I knew I would return to the family business”, Getzlaff shares. After a few years in public accounting, Sarah came back to the bank full-time in the operations area in 2007, eventually becoming the Chief Operations Officer in 2013, and taking the reins from her dad as CEO in 2018.

As a family-owned business, the Goetz family has always taken pride in treating their customers and their team members like family. “Every business says they go above and beyond, but I believe we truly do. I remember customers swinging by Lake Sakakawea State Park on weekends to ask my dad about car loans—he was always happy to help someone whenever and wherever. I also remember him leaving our house late one night to borrow a customer cash out of his own wallet for a medical emergency, and offering to send more than one employee to Mayo Clinic for health issues,” Getzlaff said.