As part of Linda Koch’s job as president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Bankers Association, she’s driven the wrong way down a couple too many one-way streets. While traversing rural southern Illinois on her way to visit member banks, she has screamed in fear of crashing into rogue cows as IBA’s members relations manager sat laughing behind the wheel. [Continue]
It’s pretty hard to out-hustle Mitch Cook. The Minnesota-based senior regional president for Iowa City-based MidWestOne bank once worked 53 days in a row without a day off. At the time, the native Michigander was working for his parents, who owned a multi-million dollar wholesale distributor of hardware and tools. [Continue]
“I’m always amazed — a lot of kids come out of college, and they don’t understand balance sheets, income statements, cash flows, sensitivity analyses like they should, and it’s like, you’re going to run a business that depends on that stuff.” That’s Nate Franzén, president, agri-business division, at First Dakota National Bank in Yankton, S.D. [Continue]
There’s a transition underway at the Bloomington, Minn.-based United Bankers’ Bank, and the person at the center of it is leveraging his humble upbringing, industry knowledge, people skills and competitive nature to make it successful. [Continue]
Tina Giorgio uses past events as fuel for future challenges, and she scrapes her employees’ cars on especially snowy winter days. She’s also been the ICBA Bancard president and CEO since 2016, and was a community banker (at three institutions in Maryland) for 30 years before that. [Continue]
Hearther Malcolm brings a degree in agricultural business and nearly two decades in ag lending experience to her work at Bank of the Rockies. She also is involved in the American Bankers Association’s Agricultural and Rural Bankers Committee. [Continue]
Jackson Winsett, assistant vice president and community affairs officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, views the connection between financial institutions and communities as two-fold. “I look at it from two different perspectives, but they both revolve around reciprocation,” he said. “The better the community is, the more the businesses in that community will benefit.” [Continue]
Throughout Jeanne Crain’s 37 years in banking, industry consolidation has been a constant. Until she reached Bremer Bank, every bank Crain ever worked for changed hands while she was employed there. Sometimes more than once. Crain recalls this journey in her own words. [Continue]
Jo Ann Barefoot has been doing a lot of globetrotting lately. Since being named the first female Deputy Comptroller of the Currency in 1978, Barefoot launched a career in the private sector and describes herself as a “serial entrepreneur.” She is currently CEO of Barefoot Innovation Group, something of a think tank for financial technology, regulatory reform and the future of banking. [Continue]
Every bank has a CFO, but it’s likely that only one has a CFnO – a chief fun officer. That’s Sarah Trapp’s title at First National Bank of Syracuse, Kan., and, yes, her job is all about fun — surprising employees with free lunches, holding company-wide massage days, or recruiting them to put on costumes for skits that reinforce best practices. [Continue]