As president and CEO, Kirby Davidson has been a key driver of the evolution of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His vision has guided the school, and he’s inspired a cohort of others to dedicate their time and efforts to its success. As he prepares to retire at the end of the year, those around him look back on what 25 years of work have meant to the school and its community.
Davidson guided GSB to branch out into digital delivery methods, long before the pandemic made that table stakes. He spearheaded an overhaul of its proprietary financial simulation software and added to the depth and breadth of its educational offerings while strengthening its partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He focused on building the kind of personal networks that will benefit the school and its students for decades to come.
Multiple people who have worked with Davidson across the years characterized his leadership of the school as superb, helping it adapt while maintaining its high standards in the classrooms (whether physical or virtual). Some of the previous presidents had focused on maintaining — they provided excellent education, but they weren’t examining how to best carry on the school’s mission in the future of a changing industry. They were preservers, not adapters. Davidson changed that.
In Madison, Davidson has surrounded himself with a team of experts and talented staff. He’s good at empowering his people and getting out of their way, said Mike Wear, an instructor and chair of the GSB curriculum advisory committee. Davidson is ready to consult their expertise but also is comfortable taking charge and making decisions when required.
Many graduates have returned to the school, as faculty, committee members or alumni ambassadors, drawn by the magnetism of Davidson’s personality and enthusiasm for the school. “It was so easy to say yes to Kirby because he’s so personable and all he had to do was ask any of us graduates for something,” said Vicki Kraai, a GSB alum who now teaches at the school. “And we would do it because not only did we love the school, but we loved Kirby.”
Davidson is quick to deflect credit to the team around him. While it’s true many others have worked hard to create its success, it’s equally clear that Davidson has been the lodestone drawing them to the school and inspiring them to work for it.
“So many times a pivot point in a banker’s career is attending the school,” said Randy Hultgren, president of the Illinois Bankers Association and immediate past chair of the GSB board of trustees. “It is so valuable, and a big part of that is the work Kirby and his team have done over the last 20 years.”
Laying the groundwork
A native Iowan, Davidson started picking up his banking expertise with the Iowa Bankers Association in 1989. He worked with member banks and in marketing for almost a decade before taking a job as director of marketing with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors in Washington, D.C. He spent three years there before moving to Madison in 2000 to serve as vice president of marketing at GSB. It was in that role that Lance Kessler, then serving on the marketing faculty, got to know him. Kessler was so impressed with their early interactions that he wrote a recommendation letter when Davidson applied to be president in 2008.
“I felt he would be excellent in the role of president, based on his leadership skills, background and experience,” Kessler said. “He has done an outstanding job, both in leadership and management.”
From his early days at GSB, Davidson impressed those around him with his passion and ability to inspire others. When he worked in marketing, he brought a spark of life to the students’ experience in Madison, said Kraai, who graduated from GSB in 2004 and is now CEO at InterAction Training in Lincoln, Neb. Kraai described impromptu drumming sessions Davidson would break into to enliven programming. “Not only did he have a heart for graduate school and for bankers, but he also had a heart for fun.”
During his first section teaching at GSB in 2010, Wear cracked a joke as he began his presentation. Davidson, who’d been sitting in the front row to observe, got up and left. Wear finished the rest of his class with dread, convinced he was going to be fired. Instead, Davidson told Wear after the class he’d seen enough from the first five minutes to know Wear had great rapport with the students. Wear has taught at the school ever since.
“He incorporates fun and enjoyment of each other’s company,” Wear said. “That creates that sense of family and unified purpose to do better for the school.”
Expanding the educational framework
Even before he became president, Davidson helped guide the evolution of GSB’s offerings and emphasis. As VP of marketing, he worked with the rest of the staff to launch the first one-week specialty school, offered in addition to its flagship training program. Other subject matter sessions followed over the years, now numbering six, focusing on HR, IT management, cybersecurity, financial management, strategic marketing and digital banking.
“We’ve really branded ourselves as being that lifelong learning partner,” Davidson said, aiming to offer training to everyone in the bank, from future presidents down through the ranks. The diversification of income for the school has also been a plus.
GSB greatly expanded its distance learning options under Davidson’s tenure as well. That could have turned into a point of contention with the state associations, said Tom Pamperin, a GSB graduate and president and CEO of Premier Community Bank in Marion, Wis., with the school seen as elbowing in on their educational turf. But Davidson’s history and relationships in the association world smoothed any ruffled feathers.
That development also gave the school a leg up when the pandemic forced a halt to in-person learning. In a fortunate twist of fate, GSB’s digital banking specialty school launched in fall 2020.
Another element has been the addition of an executive leadership certificate from the University of Wisconsin Business School’s Center for Professional and Executive Development. “That is a testament to the leadership development portion of our curriculum,” which accounts for one-third of the program, Davidson said.
Under Davidson, the school maintained its training on the technical skills of banking, but broadened the scope of what it offered. “On Kirby’s watch, the school shifted from being strictly a banking school to a leadership in banking school,” Pamperin said.
One of the crown jewels of the 25-month program at GSB is the financial institution simulation program — FiSim for short — which students run in the final year of their studies. The software was first offered in 2019 funded by a grant from the school’s supporting Prochnow Educational Foundation.
Student feedback, technical improvements and industry developments meant the program needed an overhaul, which was launched last summer. It focused on making the program more authentic to real-world scenarios as well as incorporating more of the school’s curriculum, and feedback from students has confirmed the improvements, Davidson said.
Kraai, who helped navigate the student side of the transition, said the project required some deep conversations and tough decisions. “Even when we didn’t see eye to eye on some things with this transition, he was always there to listen to my point of view,” she said. “We could work through anything because of the relationship we had.”
In many ways, Davidson has proven to be the glue that brings together the various elements of the school — faculty, students, staff — and forges them into the successful institution that exists today.
“Kirby has a very unique and wonderful ability to unite people from various backgrounds and experiences not just for a common cause but to become a new family,” Wear said. “That’s what he does best. He encourages everyone’s input while continuing to work together for the betterment of the school.”
“When you say you’re the most progressive graduate banking school, you better have the programs and be showing you’re making progress,” Davidson said. “I feel we’ve done that.”
Better than he found it
Davidson leaves large shoes to fill, but he’s more than confident that his successor, Paul Katz, will be able to step up. Katz took on the president’s role in May, and will be overseeing the in-person sessions of school this month along with Davidson, who plans to fully retire at the end of the year, making Katz CEO as well.
“Kirby has brought GSB a long way, and he’s left GSB in a really good place. Paul Katz is in a good position to carry that forward,” said GSB alum Betsy Johnson, president and CEO of Solutions Bank in Forreston, Ill., and chair of the GSB banker advisory committee. “Kirby is a wonderful man and a wonderful leader. As much as we hate to see him go — because he’s been such an icon — we’re very happy for him as he heads into retirement.”
Davidson plans to spend more time in retirement traveling with his wife, some of it visiting his GSB contacts around the country. He also wants to become more involved with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Davidson’s son Ryan passed away in 2009 at 16 after a 10-year battle with brain cancer. The two organizations were beneficial to his family, Davidson said.
As he prepares to depart, Davidson is a little bittersweet about closing this chapter of his life. But he also found it rewarding to contemplate the difference GSB has made in the quarter-century of his tenure, not only in its students, but also in the banks and communities to which those students return.
“Kirby is such a passionate person for this work, for banking, for the future of banking. He’s also such a fun person to be with,” Hultgren said. “Something I’m really excited about, and have seen already, is how Paul and Kirby have similar passions and similar personalities. They draw people to them and rally people to do great things.”