Jason MacDuff, the fervent leader and vice president of Greenpenny Bank, moved to California from Decorah, Iowa, when he was 2 years old. Navigating the effects of pollution became a normal aspect of MacDuff’s life. He has vivid memories of days, bereft of wind and agitated by heat, when dangerous smog ignited community-wide “Spare the Air” days. [Continue]
Rich Jones wants his community to see him as a fun guy rather than a stuffy banker. To shape his persona, Jones, president and CEO of central Minnesota’s Randall State Bank, recruited a friend with a video camera to create “Around the Town,” a series of short documentaries highlighting community businesses, with Jones as raconteur. [Continue]
When Sarah Fankhauser became president and CEO of core provider Data Center Inc. — the first woman to lead the Kansas-based company in its 57-year history — she faced an unfolding and historic pandemic that spurred the industry to become increasingly reliant on technology. Having come up through company ranks on the customer support side (after beginning her career at a bank), Fankhauser’s people skills proved consequential. These are skills hewn by experience. [Continue]
Karl Adam embraces the challenges that come with his new role as president of the South Dakota Bankers Association. And there are several, including the decision by voters in November to legalize both medicinal and recreational marijuana. “It’s a topic we need to get educated on,” he said. The association has been in the process of amassing resources on the subject for its members since the election. [Continue]
Melanie Hall lived through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the experience surged to the top of her mind this year. The commissioner of Montana’s Division of Banking recently compared the pandemic’s economic impact to the storm and its destruction. Despite state and Federal help, “[the impact] will come home to all people eventually,” Hall said. “We need to be ever vigilant that it could come to our banks. [Continue]
On Feb. 19, the Illinois Bankers Association announced that Randy Hultgren would be its next president and CEO. Hultgren, who served as a U.S. Representative for Illinois’ 14th congressional district from 2011 to 2019, plunged into the depths of IBA’s coronavirus response, working alongside retiring IBA President and CEO Linda Koch. Hultgren speaks to his unexpectedly eventful first months on the job. [Continue]
Father and son Tim Siegle and Aaron Siegle are working side-by-side as CEO and president of First Resource Bank, Lino Lakes, Minn., after respectively cultivating their individual careers in banking: Tim as a CEO in rural North Dakota, and Aaron as an FDIC examiner. [Continue]
Kristina K. Williams became president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines on January 20 of this year, and was soon thereafter reminded that life has a relentless ability to deliver the unexpected. In the earliest days of the pandemic, Williams took charge, organizing a crisis plan, sending roughly 90 percent of her workforce to home offices while keeping 5 percent at the bank’s disaster recovery site and another 5 percent at headquarters. [Continue]
Chuck Yagla of Iowa bank architectural firm Kirk Gross Company was a two-time NCAA wrestling champion while attending the University of Iowa in 1975 and 1976. He was set to compete in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow — until the United States boycotted them. Yagla shares his story of missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience and offers insight for all who face disappointment over canceled events today. [Continue]
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]