• Home
  • About
    • Program Overview
    • Alpha Board Founders
  • Fresh Octane
  • Membership
    • Advisory Members
    • Corporate Members
  • Programs
    • Launch Overview
    • Market Partner Profiles
    • Executive Profiles
    • Product and Services Profiles
    • Corporate Profiles
    • Executive Roundtable
  • Events
  • Contact

Alpha Board

Alpha Board is an information site for growing companies

  • Front Page
  • Overview
  • Leadership
  • Innovation
  • Technology
  • Fresh Octane
  • Growing up KC™

Portraits of Leadership Series – Kurt Knutson

7:50 pm By Dave Anderson

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Kurt Knutson – Freedom Bank, Overland Park, Kan.
Founder, Chairman and CEO

It’s Business Drive Time® in America, and we’re on a national business leadership tour. We are speaking with some of the finest leaders across America’s top growth industries. We are fielding a national market study, developing news stories and creating a video series about leading growth cities, industries, companies and people.

We recently sat down with Kurt Knutson of Freedom Bank in Overland Park in Overland Park, Kan., a growing suburb of in the Kansas City metro. Kurt is a respected CEO, a CEO advisor and business founder. Freedom Bank is one of the most well-managed business owner banks you will find. In addition to business banking insights, Kurt has provided valuable insights on what is required to foster growth of privately held companies.

The $180 million bank was founded by Kurt in 2005 after more than 20 years of prior commercial banking and finance experience. Freedom Bank is a new kind of bank, dealing exclusively with small to medium-sized privately held companies. Freedom Bank’s lending services focus on business term loans, working capital lines of credit and owner-occupied business real estate loans.

The bank’s mission, the portfolio of services and even the contemporary headquarters building were developed around the unique needs of business owners. Freedom Bank’s personalized level of services mirror what was once the norm in banking. This single-location, community bank with a visible, respected leader is something Kurt experienced firsthand as he grew up in the Midwestern town of Waterloo, Iowa, home of John Deere Tractor Works www.deere.com.

https://www.alphaboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BDT%20Kurt%20video%202%202019%20FINAL.mp4

In addition to Freedom Bank, Kurt worked with his investor group to create a Founders Club and a Freedom Bank Foundation. Associated activities help to cultivate ongoing business friendships and professional connections for all involved. Freedom Bank hosts quarterly in-house events and an annual charity golf tournament. Kurt and his team select worthy local causes each year to receive the tournament proceeds.

Kurt also established a Freedom Bank banking and corporate finance training institute. The Freedom Bank Institute offers young professionals a taste of career opportunities in business banking. The institute provides student internships and training to promising young professionals on the subjects of banking, credit analysis and corporate finance.

Kurt is active in the business and banking community across the region. He is a member and past chairman of the Kansas Banking Board within the Office of the State Bank Commissioner. Kurt is an active member and chairman elect of the Kansas Bankers Association www.ksbankers.com, and is a member of KBA’s federal affairs committee. Kurt is on the board of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce www.kansaschamber.org, and a corporate board member of Clements Worldwide, a leading supplier of insurance solutions for expatriates and international organizations.

Kurt began his career as a regional sales manager at Russell Stover Candies before entering commercial banking. Prior to founding Freedom Bank, Kurt held senior and executive level banking positions serving customers locally, regionally and nationally. Prior banking experience includes Enterprise Bank, UMB Bank, Bank of America, Johnson County Bank and Bankers Trust. Kurt received his degree in marketing from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. www.uiowa.edu

For business loans in the Kansas City region, you can reach Kurt and Freedom Bank at www.IBankWithFreedom.com

Filed Under: Front Page, Home Featured Middle, Leadership

Fresh Octane

Time to Hit The Road

Who are the leaders that are moving American business forward? It’s Business Drive Time®, and we are looking for some of the greatest business drivers regionally and nationally to feature in our 2022-2023 Alpha Board Leadership and Innovation Tour.    Who are the innovators?  Who are the leaders?  What (and where) are the opportunities?  Which companies, […]

Word Cloud Banner for Alpha Board Tour

It’s Business Drive Time® in Kansas City

Kansas City is jumping. We’ve been through alot in this past year, but things are on the mend. Companies are expanding. New organizations are finding their beginnings in the city. Employers hiring. They are looking for great people, and they are finding them in Kansas City! With all the changes in the market, and turmoil […]

Events

Time to Hit The Road

Who are the leaders that are moving American business forward? It’s Business Drive Time®, and we are looking for some of the greatest business drivers regionally and nationally to feature in our

Alpha Board

The Building of a City – Business Drive Time® in KC

It’s Business Drive Time in Kansas City. What does that mean?  Kansas City is growing!  Embrace it! About 100,000 companies, including ours, are sitting at the national epicenter of business

Additional Articles

Thank you for signing up for Fresh Octane® Business Leadership Exchange

We look forward to see you at the Fresh Octane® Business Leadership Exchange … [Read More...]

“Kansas City on the Move®” – Sheila Ost

Sheila Ost – Advanced Insurance Planning Consultant Target Insurance Services Sheila Ost of Target Insurance Services is Kansas City “business connected.” She has collaborated with privately-held … [Read More...]

Crisis Leadership from Former Medtronic CEO Bill George

While pundits and experts are churning out a plethora of books analyzing the causes of the 2008 economic crisis, it’s refreshing to find a practical book that provides some good thinking on how to … [Read More...]

Portraits of Leadership

“Lead, follow or get out of the way.”  Thomas Paine While Lee Iacocca and others may claim credit for the quote above, it was first spoken by Thomas Paine, famous revolutionary and author of “Common … [Read More...]

Portraits of Leadership Series – Kurt Knutson

Kurt Knutson – Freedom Bank, Overland Park, Kan. Founder, Chairman and CEO It’s Business Drive Time® in America, and we’re on a national business leadership tour. We are speaking with some of the … [Read More...]

International Investments in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy

You and I fret over how to balance our investment dollars in a SEP or an IRA. Meanwhile, Robert P. Smith has his bags packed for Damascus, Syria to measure that country’s investment potential. That’s … [Read More...]

Alpha Board is an information site for growing companies

Recent posts

  • Time to Hit The Road
  • Growing up KC™
  • Portraits of Leadership Series – Kurt Knutson
  • Business Drive Time® Kansas City Freedom Bank and Kurt Knutson
  • J.D. Higgason – Reece Nichols Real Estate Koehler Bortnick Group

Archives

  • April 2022 (2)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • March 2017 (1)
  • February 2017 (2)
  • February 2014 (3)
  • January 2014 (1)
  • December 2013 (1)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (1)
  • February 2013 (2)
My Tweets
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · [site_link] ·