First Midwest Bank president Kathy Bertrand set to retire; Kevin Greaser to replace her

Kathy Bertrand, community president of First Midwest Bank in Cape Girardeau, will retire at the end of this week, marking the end of a 35-year banking career at several local financial institutions.

Replacing Bertrand as the Cape Girardeau bank president will be Kevin Greaser who has served as community president of Alliance Bank in Cape Girardeau the past 11 years. He began his transition to First Midwest Bank earlier this week.

“We had been talking about this (retirement) for some time,” Bertrand said Tuesday shortly after an ad appeared in the Southeast Missourian announcing her retirement. “It came together sooner rather than later.”

Bertrand will continue working with First Midwest Bank, which is headquartered in Dexter, Missouri, on a consulting basis until the end of the year, she said.

Bertrand started her banking career in 1984 as the loan services manager at Boatmen’s Bank, which subsequently became NationsBank, then Bank of America. At the time, she was the first and only female loan officer in Cape Girardeau. During her 13 years at Boatmen’s Bank, she also served as a commercial lender, becoming an assistant vice president, then vice president and eventually senior vice president at the bank.

From Boatmen’s, Bertrand held commercial lending positions at Mercantile Bank (now U.S. Bank) and The Bank of Missouri before joining First Midwest Bank six years ago as community bank president of First Midwest’s Cape Girardeau branch at 1820 N. Kingshighway.

“I oversaw the construction of the entire project while working out of a modular unit and building a loan and deposit portfolio from scratch,” Bertrand said of her first years with First Midwest.

“To date, I remain the only female community bank president in the Cape Girardeau market,” she said.

“First Midwest has been a wonderful bank to work for,” Bertrand said, adding she and her successor have a work history dating back to the 1980s. “I worked with Kevin at Boatmen’s eons ago.”

Kevin Greaser poses for a portrait in this file photo.Southeast Missourian file

With more than 35 years in the financial services industry, Greaser joins First Midwest with extensive experience in management and lending roles.

Before becoming president of the Alliance Bank branch in Cape Girardeau, Greaser was vice president of Commerce Bancshares for 10 years and was a vice president in the commercial lending department of Regions Bank. He also spent two years as a vice president at Morgan Keegan & Co., an investing and financial planning firm that merged with Raymond James in 2012.

“We are pleased to have Kevin working with our staff to fulfill the banking needs of our customers and help continue our growth in the Cape area,” Joseph T. McLane, president of First Midwest Bank.

A Cape Girardeau native, Greaser is a graduate of Notre Dame Regional High School and Southeast Missouri State University. He has served in a variety of capacities in numerous civic and community organizations including the United Way of Southeast Missouri and the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

“I am excited to have the opportunity and privilege to work with the talented First Midwest staff in serving our valued customers, friends and neighbors in Cape,” Greaser said.

The public is invited to a retirement reception for Bertrand from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at First Midwest Bank’s Cape Girardeau branch. A successor for Greaser at Alliance Bank has not been announced.

In addition to its Cape Girardeau and Dexter locations, First Midwest Bank has facilities in Dudley, Sikeston and Jackson.

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