MEEKER I Shane Wilson, the son of Chuck and Sally Wilson of Meeker, has returned to the Western Slope to work at First National Bank of the Rockies. Wilson currently lives in Grand Junction and is working as vice president of special assets at FNBR’s Valley Plaza office.
Wilson, a 1982 graduate of Meeker High School, has explored the world and made it back to Colorado. Shortly after high school, he joined the Air Force. Exiting the military after four years of service, Wilson went to San Francisco State University to finish his undergraduate degree in business administration. While in school, he worked on the options market at the Pacific Stock Exchange and then, after graduation in 1991, joined a Bay Area-based private equity firm which invested in distressed real estate assets in Texas and Arizona.
After his stint in private equity and seeking to work internationally, Wilson pursued his MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix and Shanghai, China. With his new degree in hand, Wilson took an international management position with Iowa-based Vermeer, a heavy-equipment manufacturer. Concentrating in Asia, Wilson’s responsibilities included sales, distribution, business development, consulting and business restructuring in the Asian markets.
“Working for Vermeer and the real estate private equity firm prepared me well for my current position at FNBR doing loan workouts and asset marketing,” Wilson said. “My background in real estate, consulting and business restructuring all relate closely to my work here at the bank.”
During his 10 years with Vermeer, Wilson lived in Des Moines, Iowa, Singapore and Seattle.
“Seattle is a place where I felt like I was supposed to be,” Wilson said. “I moved there from Singapore to get into sailing and it’s the perfect place to live when all your recreation is on the water.”
Now Wilson has traded his sailing habit for mountain biking. “I love to mountain bike,” Wilson said, “and Colorado has world-class trails; so far, I hardly miss my boat.”
Living around the world, Wilson says it’s great to come back to his hometown area.
“Western Colorado is a unique place and very much home for me; now that I’m working at FNBR, I get to be near family and around people with integrity and a hard work ethic,” he said. “It’s a great feeling.”