Adaptable and Inspired
Nicole Lorch grew up in Valparaiso, Indiana. As a teenager, she found herself a few hours south in Greencastle for a high school drum major camp.
“I just fell for the campus. It was beautiful — the quintessential college campus,” she says. Although she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to study, she knew what she needed.
“I needed a place to set me up. I needed a foundation. And I knew DePauw was a place I could set my path.”
Setting the Course
Lorch had clear goals for her undergraduate experience — including studying abroad, participating in a program like Management Fellows, and joining a sorority.
Lorch became an economics and French double major.
Gary Lemon was her academic advisor and also taught her Econ 101 class.
“One distinct memory I have is that we had to debate a topic that was, broadly, economic in nature. Our class was debating the potential economic impact of legalization of marijuana. This was well before any states had actually done so. I loved that spirit — the intellectual debate in a classroom.”
She remembers calling her dad after that class to tell him she wanted to be an attorney.
Finding Joy
“Studying abroad was so enriching. I was in Strasbourg. I traveled to Paris, Prague, London and Italy as well. Without telling my mother, I went to Austria and did the Sound of Music tour. I stayed in a hostel — everything on the cheap.
“Someone recommended I check out Munich, so I hopped on a train. Talking to another person, it was recommended that I visit crazy King Ludwig’s castle — so I did that, too. This was all by myself, in between classes.”
Staying Plugged In
“As I approached graduation, I took the LSAT and was accepted into Indiana University’s law school. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump straight into school again, so I deferred,” she says.
Instead, she took a job working for David Becker (’75), an entrepreneur and owner of re:Member Data, a company that sold software to credit unions across the country. “I started there right out of school, in 1996.” Nicole has worked with Becker ever since. “He’s a serial entrepreneur. In 1999, he launched First Internet Bank. I moved over to the bank a week before we opened. I started in marketing and have taken on more responsibility over time.” She is now the president and chief operating officer at First Internet Bank.
“This job has afforded me so many experiences. I didn’t know I was going to be a career banker, but I love it. We’re a top 10 SBA lender — so every day, we’re helping someone fulfill a dream, maybe even change their life.”
A Dynamic Career
“My career has been very fulfilling. Every day is different. Every year is different — it’s not just a rotation of last year’s work, updated for the next.
“We’re in an evolving segment of a dynamic industry, and to stay competitive, we have to be flexible. We launched an Internet bank at a time when some people were still using dial-up. It required creative thinking and constant adjustments based on feedback, real-world conditions, changing technology and other factors.”
She continues, “We’ve seen products and offerings evolve, expansions and contractions, adjustments along the way. We’re now a publicly traded company holding $5.8 billion in assets.
“There are things happening every day in our business that we’ve perhaps never seen before — sometimes events like 9/11, the Great Financial Crisis, the pandemic, and the 2023 bank failures that impact our business and require us to think and adapt quickly. I think that’s where a DePauw education proves valuable. We think synthetically.”
Giving Back
Nicole returns to campus at least annually as a trustee of the Rolla M. Malpas Trust, which provides scholarships to outstanding and deserving Indiana students. “I’m so glad to come back to campus and talk to students. I think DePauw, in this smaller environment where you are required to participate, helps students engage with the broader world.
“It helps them think about the contexts others live in — their background, their faiths, and so on. That’s important for their development as leaders.”
