NICOLET BANKSHARES INC

Employment Agreements for Messrs. Witczak and Hutjens

•The employment agreements provide for an initial 1-year term, which renews automatically each day so that the term remains one year unless either party gives notice of intent that automatic renewals shall cease.

•Each executive shall receive a base salary, which the Compensation Committee reviews annually.

•Each executive is eligible to receive annual bonus compensation comprised of a cash and an equity award (with each at a defined target percentage of base salary) at the discretion of the Board. Any incentive-based compensation or other compensation paid to the executive under the employment agreement is subject to clawback under certain circumstances.

•Each executive is eligible to receive reimbursement for reasonable and necessary business expenses in addition to country club annual dues and certain other benefit programs open to other similarly situated Nicolet employees.

•The employment agreements provide for up to 12 months of base pay as severance plus 12 months of health continuation coverage in the event the executive is involuntarily terminated by Nicolet without Cause or if the executive resigns for Good Reason. If the executive resigns for Good Reason within 24 months following a Change of Control, the executive shall receive severance equal to 2.99 times the base salary in effect immediately prior to the Change of Control plus the largest annual bonus paid to the executive during the prior three consecutive years, and 18 months of health continuation coverage.

•Upon executive’s voluntary termination without Good Reason, the Company may elect to either retain the executive as an employee during the 60 day notice period or immediately accept the executive’s notice and terminate the executive’s employment.

•The employment agreements include covenants that restrict the executives, for a period of 12 months following their termination for any reason, including (i) non-competition, (ii) non-solicitation of customers, and (iii) non-solicitation of employees to which the executive had Material Contact.

•Payments made in connection with a change in control would be reduced, if necessary, to ensure that no payments constitute an excess parachute payment under Internal Revenue Code Section 280G.

The foregoing summary of the material terms of the Employment Agreements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the full text of the agreements, which are filed as Exhibits 10.15 and 10.17 for Messrs. Witczak and Hutjens, respectively, to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Rule 10b5-1 and Non-Rule 10b5-1 Trading Arrangements: None.