Hoosier Banker 9 Association and of the health of the community banking environment in general. This gathering signifies the strength and confidence in four people, regardless of gender, who are very passionate about community banking, about people, about relationships.” Amber Van Til: “The IBA has created a team focused on serving Indiana banks at the highest level. The board of directors, the Future Leadership Division, the various committees, as well as the IBA staff spend countless hours engaged in building on the success of the past with innovation, excellent customer service, and win-win advocacy that benefits banks and the communities they serve. “A transition is a ripe time for change. We are increasing our communications and government relations efforts, further developing our staff, relocating our offices and implementing a new women’s conference, all in an effort to better serve our members.” How has the industry overcome historic barriers to leadership diversity? Annette: “We have more women with higher education and technical experience in the workforce today, more organizations that support women, and more women mentors. Along with that, we’re offering more flexibility for all employees to allow for a better balance between work and home life.” Cindy: “Women today represent close to 50 percent of total MBAs. So there are more of us preparing for a banking or financial services career path. Also we’ve seen an uptick in women as entrepreneurs and as small business owners. In Indiana, between 1997 and 2015, there was a 38 percent increase in women-owned firms. And between 2014 and 2015, 15 new women-owned firms opened in Indiana per day. The changing face of our customers impacts the way we as bankers do business, as well.” Kristin: “We’ve made great strides, too, in diversity and age. In the Future Leadership Division, we have several young bankers who hold significant roles within their institutions, carrying much responsibility. It’s exciting and encouraging to see that senior leadership is open to finding the best talent, those with ambition and drive and the right skill sets, regardless of tenure.” How is leadership different today than in the past? Cindy: “Today it’s more collaboration and consensus-building, especially in our business. When I began in the business, it was very finance-focused, but over time we’ve added different disciplines to the banking sector. There’s the technology side, which is huge, and also the enterprise risk management side, moving beyond market and credit risk to areas like operational risk, business risk, strategic risk and reputation risk. “That broader base of the type of risk, applying to different bank disciplines, requires more people at the table. With more people, you have to have more consensus-building and, as a result, more collaboration. There’s a lot more mixing together of different disciplines in order to be a successful banker today.” Annette: “We offer a team concept, rather than top-down hierarchy for decision- making. Our culture has evolved to empower our team members to provide input and make decisions to advance our organization. We get a lot of positive feedback from individuals who have 4,383 '%48-32 From left – Cindy Konich, Amber Van Til, Annette Russell and Kristin Marcuccilli provide quality leadership for the Indiana banking community. “The IBA has created a team focused on serving Indiana banks at the highest level.” Amber R. Van Til “The fact that the four of us are here says a great deal about the Indiana environment.” 'MRH] 0 /SRMGL “This gathering WMKRMƤIW XLI WXVIRKXL ERH GSRƤHIRGI MR JSYV people, regardless of gender.” /VMWXMR 1EVGYGGMPPM
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