Meet Our Board Members: Dave Currier
Richard Solberg, Bell Bank’s board chairman, spent at least 4 years encouraging Dave Currier to bank at what was then State Bank of Fargo.
“I wasn’t easy to get for a customer,” says Dave, president of Dakota Fence Co. “I didn’t mind talking to Richard, though. He wasn’t a salesman. He was the real deal.”
When the bank Dave was at closed in the mid-1980s, he interviewed a number of banks and found Bell was the best fit for him and his business.
“It’s all about the people,” he remarks. “They just take care of you. That’s why Bell is the leader in the market. It starts with who’s in the building, not the name on the building.”
A few years later, Dave was asked to join Bell’s board of directors – a position he’s held for more than 25 years.
“Bell has been very good to me,” he comments. “I’ve learned a lot from the company’s good business practices, good ethics. Being exposed to the bank board has helped me in my business career. It’s been a great experience.”
And Bell has benefited from Dave’s experience in the construction industry.
Dave has always been ambitious and even as a teenager was always a hard-working entrepreneur. While in high school, he plowed snow, sharpened ice-skates and began building and installing fences. It was that experience that lead him to start Dakota Fence Co. in 1972 while finishing his senior year in high school.
“I didn’t start out planning to go into the fence business,” Dave remarks. “It just kind of happened.”
He earned an associate degree in sales and marketing/business from the University of Minnesota Crookston, but by 1974 his fence business had become more than a full-time job. Two years later, he convinced his dad to quit his job and join him.
Over the years, Dakota Fence expanded into signs, guardrail, traffic control and playground equipment. The company has offices in Fargo, Bismarck, Minot and Williston, N.D., and does business in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming.
“It’s the people who make the company,” Dave insists. “It’s not me. I’m just a cog.”
Dakota Fence continues to be a family business. In 1983, Dave’s brother, Dan, acquired their dad’s part of the business.
“I have 5 of the first 6 people I started with still working with me,” Dave says. “It’s a family. Our philosophy is very similar to the philosophy at Bell Bank. It’s about how you treat your employees and customers. If you have good, happy employees, you’ll have happy customers.”
Dave was born and raised in Fargo, N.D. In 2005, he was inducted into the Fargo North High School Hall of Fame. He is also a longtime member of Shriners International, a fraternity that works to help children through Shriners Hospitals for Children.