Evan Funk ’04 is powering forward in his career in banking. It’s something he’s done before, on a different playing field.
This spring, Funk, a business admin grad, became the Wichita market president at Sunflower Bank, a community bank with $1.7 billion in assets based out of Salina, Kan.
The bank operates in three states: Colorado, Missouri and Kansas, and has three Wichita locations.
In the years since his graduation from Wichita State, Funk has made a number of moves up the ranks of retail banking, from teller to branch manager, and into credit administration. (He also earned a master’s degree in business administration from Baker University.)
His career tipped off at Fidelity Bank, where he netted a job his last semester at WSU. In 2011, he moved to Legacy Bank, where he helped create a credit department.
He then joined Equity Bank as a commercial loan officer, before returning to Fidelity where he was on the bank’s roster as vice president-commercial relationship manager.
He landed the position of senior vice president of commercial lending at Sunflower earlier this year — a move that placed him in a perfect position for further career advancement.
It’s a career the 6-foot, 5-inch banker almost didn’t choose.
Funk played power forward for the Bethany College Swedes for a few years before starting at Wichita State as an education major and serving as a student manager for the Shockers under Mark Turgeon.
His game plan was to coach basketball. Banking, though, won out.
