Writer: Tony Telschow

Focus on Farming: Global commodity demand may mitigate turmoil. [Continue]

The incoming 111th Congress is one that bankers can work with, said Floyd Stoner, executive vice president of congressional relations and public policy for the ABA. [Continue]

Kent Stock went to work at Community Savings Bank of Edgewood, Iowa, in August. The former school principal and freshly minted financial relationship manager joined the banking industry just in time for a fall and winter of financial unrest. [Continue]

Fifty-five years in a hundred-year bank. [Continue]

Dennis Hesker, president and CEO of The First National Bank of Okawville, Ill., and chairman of the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, shares thoughts on CBAI’s priorities and the ongoing economic stabilization efforts. [Continue]

Ward Eames could hardly believe what he was reading. The Minneapolis-based founder of the National Theatre for Children had produced school-tour stage shows on energy conservation, nutrition, smoking, even bullying. [Continue]

There may be a lesson for leaders in the hiring of Vaune Cripe. It has to do with foresight, perseverance and judgment about talent. Cripe started her career in a public accounting office in Dickinson, N.D. George Ehlis, a farmer and bank CEO, was a tax client. “My farm experience was really limited,” Cripe said, … Read more

Chris Hensley decided in 1998 that her two main pursuits were incompatible. She was the executive director of the YWCA of Greater Des Moines at the time, but she was also on the Des Moines city council. In her role at the YWCA, she spent a lot of time raising money. “That just didn’t go … Read more

Shelly Steere grew up in northern Minnesota but moved to Minneapolis to attend the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. She worked for a while in the insurance department of the Minnesota Bankers Association, and she “always had a keen interest in math and numbers.” But she didn’t necessarily think she would … Read more

Attending a leadership conference as a board member of the South Dakota Bankers Association, Marcia Honomichl asked a hotel receptionist where her event was scheduled. The woman behind the desk politely steered Honomichl toward the spouses’ program. “When I see my husband I will tell him,” Honomichl said, indicating she was the banker, not the … Read more