Noah Wilcox, president, CEO and chairman of Grand Rapids State Bank, Grand Rapids, Minn., was elected 2020-2021 chair of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Wilcox is also president, CEO and chair of its holding company, Wilcox Bancshares Inc., Grand Rapids, and chair/CEO of its sibling, Minnesota Lakes Bank, Delano.
“We are all part of the same strong root system that underpins the forest of community banking nationwide,” Wilcox said in a speech. “We depend on one another, and that’s how we thrive and flourish.”
Wilcox also touted legislative and regulatory accomplishments of the past year and urged attendees of the ICBA’s annual meeting to take advantage of lobbying resources. “Advocacy success takes time, but we community bankers have shown again and again that we have the diligence and the patience to see our campaigns all the way through to the harvest,” he said.
Active engagement, rather than passively sending form letters, is a focus of his, Wilcox said in a separate interview. “Active engagement is so much more effective. That would be bankers taking three to five minutes to actually craft their own comments, share their own thoughts or examples from their communities, and send them directly to their members of Congress,” he said. “So it’s personal. I want to spur active engagement.”
Other 2020-2021 members of the ICBA executive committee are:
- Chair-elect Robert Fisher, president and CEO of Tioga State Bank, Spencer, N.Y.
- Vice Chair Brad Bolton, president, CEO and senior lender of Community Spirit Bank, Red Bay, Ala.
- ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey
- Treasurer Gregory Deckard, president, chairman and CEO of State Bank Northwest, Spokane Valley, Wash.
- Secretary Alice Frazier, president and CEO of Bank of Charles Town, W.Va.
- Immediate Past Chair Preston Kennedy, president and CEO of Zachary Bancshares Inc., Zachary, La.
- Past Chair Timothy Zimmerman, CEO of Standard Bank, Monroeville, Pa.
- Past Chair R. Scott Heitkamp, president and CEO of ValueBank Texas, Corpus Christi
- ICBA Consolidated Holdings Chair Jack A. Hartings, chair of The Peoples Bank Co., Coldwater, Ohio