Growing up in the shadow of the Omaha Stockyards, Tom Jensen learned about hard work and business ethics working alongside his dad. He spent many days sorting and loading cattle.
“Some of my fondest memories growing up were visiting ranchers with my dad,” Jensen says. “Those were the days before cell phones, so I’d see him talk face to face with customers and learned how to conduct business. He always said, ‘the only thing you have in this world are your name and your reputation so don’t mess it up.’”
Jensen’s dad passed away when Jensen was only 15 years old, and his mother sold the stockyards. He attended the University of Nebraska – Omaha and graduated with a degree in Business Administration. During college, he worked as a bank teller, night manager, then in his last semester of college, he took a position in ag lending at the Livestock Exchange Building in Omaha.
“It was 1979, and I took the job at the stockyards because that’s like my second home to me,” he says. “It was an interesting time. Agriculture was struggling. We talk about high interest rates today, but we were charging customers 22-23% interest in the early 80s. It was very difficult, but for a young person, it was a great opportunity to learn.”
In 1984 Jensen joined First National Bank of Omaha in Correspondent Banking, working with community banks on agricultural overline loans. The following year Jensen started a direct Agribusiness department.
From July of 1985 until June 2020, FNBO Agribusiness department had growth to $2.5 billion of loan commitments. The department had many outstanding team members throughout the country.
One of the biggest changes Jensen notes is the consolidation of the packing industry. He says there used to be several 8-10 independent packing plants in Omaha whereas now there are just a couple, along with the large companies. He also saw consolidation on the production side.
“One of my longest standing customers, when we started doing business, they were feeding 3,000 cattle. Today, that feedyard is around 22,000 head,” he explains. “It’s still run by the family, and that’s how a lot of the industry is. It isn’t consolidated with corporations, but by families that have been successful and continue to expand their operations to bring back the next generations.”
Jensen was promoted multiple times throughout his career and at the time of his retirement in June 2020, he was a Senior Vice President and member of the Bank Board of Directors.
Jensen has been involved with the Nebraska Cattleman and National Cattleman’s Beef Association additionally serving on the Cattle Fax Board of Directors for eight years.
“I think it’s really important to be involved in policy issues because it sets the standards that we need to have one unified voice when we go back to D.C.” Jensen says. “If you’re not involved, you can’t complain about what happened.”
Through the years Jensen also enjoyed interacting with college students as a guest presenter for Agriculture Economics classes at multiple universities.
“We talked about case studies of loans and what to expect from a lender if they were going to go back to the family operation,” he says.
When it comes to leadership, Jensen says he always tried to lead by example.
“I wouldn’t ask somebody to do something that I wasn’t willing to do myself, whether it be the smallest task or the largest task,” he says. “There are challenges in lending, and you have to face those head on. You also need integrity to do the right thing even in difficult times.”
Jensen reflects on his time working at First National Bank of Omaha and the customer first mentality the family bank focused on through the years. The family has always stood behind agriculture in good times are bad.
“The former president who recently passed away would always ask how our customers were doing,” Jensen says. “He took a long-term view and realized in agriculture there are cycles. He would say it was my job to figure out how to make sure they remained our customers, not only for the generation that we were in, but for the next generation.”
Jensen and his wife, Mary Ruth have been married for 45 years and have three daughters and eight grandchildren.
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