Movers & Shakers: David Faust, Platinum Bank

A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:

Title: Executive vice president and director of sales and marketing

Age: 47

David Faust is working to drive growth as executive vice president and director of sales and marketing at Oakdale-based Platinum Bank.

In his newly created role, Faust also joined Platinum Bank's senior leadership team and is part of its succession plan. Tom Jacobson remains president and CEO of the $150 million bank, which Faust said is marking its eighth anniversary this month.

Faust's responsibilities include establishing sales strategies and teams to develop new commercial banking relationships and strategic partnerships.

Faust said he would look to add to Platinum Bank's staff at its east-metro headquarters and explore adding a west-metro location.

For the past eight years, Faust led sales and marketing efforts for Anchor Bank and its $1.4 billion in assets and 15 offices. He previously was a commercial banking executive at Bremer Bank.

Faust said he was eager to join a smaller organization with "a healthy spirit of entrepreneurship."

Faust has a degree in business management with a finance emphasis from St. John's University.

Q: What appealed to you about joining a smaller banking organization?

A: I've always been a growth-oriented guy, and this is a smaller organization that was founded by entrepreneurs, that has entrepreneurs as shareholders. They get the strains and pains and challenges of growing and running a business.

A: Besides having all the products and services that banks 10 times our size have, it's about how we deliver those. We don't have layers of bureaucracy. We don't have this big machine to run credit approvals through. Being creative smartly on the credit side for small businesses is a competitive advantage for our organization.

Q: What is your plan for expanding to the west?

A: We want to grab an experienced banker who wants to set up a team on the west side of town and extend our brand to that side of town and do it in a way where they can build their own team and serve that side.