Executive edge: Scot Wetzel; United Western Bancorp president has banking in the blood.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn

Picking up a broom would forever change Scot Wetzel's life.

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"I would go to work with my dad as a kid in high school and sweep the floors or do whatever I could at a little bank in Ohio, and learned that I loved banking," said Wetzel, 38, a third-generation banker and since December 2005 president and CEO of Denver-based United Western Bancorp.

The company's principal subsidiary, United Western Bank, operates four Front Range community banks and has sites in Longmont, the Denver Tech Center and Aspen under development with plans to open an additional five to 10 locations over the next five years.

Wetzel, who grew up in Golden and attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, had previously been president and CEO of Compass Bancshares' Colorado operations and senior vice president for KeyBank in Colorado. But over his 15 years in banking he regularly thought fondly of his high school days doing odd jobs in a community bank.

"I loved working with people. There's such a special appeal helping entrepreneurs in the community, and I had always dreamed of running my own company, to start my own little bank--to go back to my roots," said Wetzel, who in 2005 led Matrix Bancorp Inc.'s recapitalization and transition into United Western.

It was a risky move for a man who the day he resigned from his steady job at Compass to venture into the unproven, learned his third child, William, was on his way.

Wetzel and his wife, Charlotte, have three sons, Charlie, 7, Teddy, 5, and William, 1. At an early age, they already are getting lessons in finance from their father, who at age 26 became one of KeyBank's youngest senior vice presidents in Cleveland after starting his career at KeyBank predecessor, Society...