Alerus Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ALRS) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 25, 2024 12:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Katie Lorenson - President and CEO
Al Villalon - Chief Financial Officer
Karin Taylor - Chief Risk Management Officer
Jim Collins - Chief Banking and Revenue Officer
Conference Call Participants
Jeff Rulis - D.A. Davidson & Co.
Nathan Race - Piper Sandler
Matthew Renck - KBW
Operator
Good morning, afternoon, evening. And welcome to the Alerus Financial Corporation Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded.
This call may include forward-looking statements and the company’s actual results may differ materially from those indicated in any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements are listed in the earnings release and the company’s SEC filings.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Alerus Financial Corporation President and CEO, Katie Lorenson. Please go ahead.
Katie Lorenson
Thank you. Thank you, Harry, and thank you to everyone joining our call today. We appreciate your interest and your investment in Alerus. Joining me today is Alerus’ CFO, Al Villalon, who will discuss our financial performance and results for the quarter. Also on the call is Karin Taylor, our Chief Risk Management Officer; and Jim Collins, our Chief Banking and Revenue Officer.
This morning, I will provide some commentary on an excellent quarter of execution in key areas of the company. We’ve been working with incredible urgency over the past two years to strategically transform the Commercial Wealth Bank. We began with assembling a new executive leadership team in addition to putting the right people in the right seats across the company.
Over the past -- course of the past 18 months, we have completed five restructurings and added over 120 new team members of the company, while managing to reduce overall headcount to nearly 10%. The resulting transformation of our Commercial Wealth Bank is evident with exceptional deposit growth supporting high quality loan growth during the quarter.
In addition, the well-executed balance sheet repositioning in December provided additional flexibility and continued momentum to improve financial performance heading into 2024 and beyond. We believe this quarter marks a notable milestone in turning the corner on our return to top-tier financial performance with improving PPNR.