Following a successful inaugural year, ICBC’s 2024 Leadership Development Program (LDP) is back and off to a great start. This year, we are excited and appreciative of the returning sponsorship of ICBC associate member FHLBank Topeka, as well as a new associate member sponsor, BHG Financial.

Our LDP is a 10-month program based on four main pillars — Leadership, Advocacy, Education and Networking — with each month dedicated to one or several of these pillars. The program is focused less on technical skills and more on essential skills such as self-awareness and confidence, project management, powerful conversing, team building, professional self and company representation. This year, we added a bank-centric challenge for the participants in small groups to research and present their recommended solutions. Each group will have a coach, and we are thrilled that two ICBC board members, Kathryn Perry with Park State Bank & Trust and Dan Ebert with Evergreen National Bank, have stepped up to fill the coach roles.

We kicked off the program with A Day at the Capitol on Feb. 28. The goal of the day was to explain the critical role that each person plays in advocating for community banks in their communities and at the Capitol. The day included:

• A presentation from Amanda King, a senior research analyst with the Colorado Legislative Council, on the legislative process and the life of a bill.
• A regulatory process overview from a panel consisting of Ken Boldt, state bank commissioner; William Kelver, assistant VP Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Denver Branch; and Treana Bennett, council at the OCC in Denver.
• A discussion of public participation in the legislative process with Mary Marchun, ICBC’s lobbyist from The Capstone Group.
• Personal meetings with Senator Rod Pelton and Senator Byron Pelton. The group discovered how important it is for legislators to hear directly from their constituents.
• A House Business Affairs and Labor Committee meeting. The group also embarked on a private tour of the Capitol … always a favorite!
• A communications and outreach briefing from Monica Burton, 76 Group, ICBC’s public relations firm, and Loren Furman, President and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, who discussed the current business environment in Colorado.

The remainder of the year will consist of virtual and in-person educational and leadership presentations from ICBC associate members Connie West with The James Paul Group, Ted Rosen with Expert Business Development, Dan Bruder with Blendification, and ICBC LDP Consultant CJ Juleff with CJ Juleff & Associates. In June, the group will attend one of ICBC’s annual Community Banker Roundtables, where a legislative recap will be presented, as well as a panel from the State Division of Banking, the OCC, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the FDIC meets in different parts of Colorado with community bankers to cover topics such as examination trends and the current economic outlook. LDP participants will have the opportunity to attend the Independent Community Bankers of America’s LEAD FWD Summit leadership conference in September and hopefully also attend ICBC’s 51st annual convention later that month in Vail. The program will wrap up in November with the groups presenting their bank-centric challenge and their approach to meeting the challenge head on.

We are excited to have a dynamic group of community bankers from across Colorado joining us this year.

Thank you to all who support the program!