EBS Through the Years: Celebrating the 75th Session of CBA’s Executive Banking School
CBA Highlights History, Evolution, and Faculty Stories from Retail Banking’s Premier Advanced Education Program
This week, the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) kicked off a milestone 75th session of Executive Banking School (EBS). For over seven decades, EBS has prepared rising bank leaders with the financial, strategic, and leadership skills necessary to navigate a changing industry. The 75th anniversary reflects a continual commitment to evolving alongside retail banking while focusing on the development of future leaders.
The Early Years
EBS began as the School of Consumer Lending in 1952 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville to recognize retail banking’s growing role in the nation’s economy. The school was founded to “fill a long-felt need to educate and train bankers who want and need added knowledge and greater understanding of the field of consumer banking.” Since then, EBS has evolved alongside the banking industry, expanding beyond consumer lending into broader retail bank management and strategic management, adopting new names to reflect these changes.
In 1971, the school was renamed the Graduate School of Consumer Banking to better reflect the level of content taught. In 1981, it changed to the Graduate School of Retail Bank Management to reflect the change in curriculum focus. Then, in 2015, the school adopted its current name: the Executive Banking School. Today, EBS is held annually at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., where students meet over the course of three years for an immersive program that teaches them about finance, risk, and leadership. The course curriculum broadly follows such that Year One focuses on the strategy and elements of running a consumer retail bank, Year Two focuses even more on finance and risk and the experiences of a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer, and Year Three brings it all together to focus on how to execute on the bank strategy from the perspective of a Chief Executive Officer.
When the program began, 50 students that mostly consisted of retail bankers were admitted to deepen their knowledge of consumer lending. Today, the student body consists of nearly 400 students from diverse backgrounds and across many departments of a bank – all committed to learning about every aspect of retail banking, networking with other bank leaders and their peers, participating in simulations that improve their strategic decision-making, and graduating with stronger leadership skills to advance their careers.
Innovative Methods: Shifting to MarketSim and Collaborative Learning
Part of EBS’ mission is a commitment to prepare leaders with a more comprehensive understanding of the industry, especially with the continuous development of technology affecting decision-making for banking leaders. The most significant example of this is the development of its market simulation (MarketSim).
Before MarketSim, students completed a different bank simulation that focused on asset and liability management. As the curriculum changed to emphasize more leadership and strategic decision-making skills, the need for a new simulation grew. According to longtime faculty member and Professor Emeritus at Bishop University, Paul Leventhal, the idea for MarketSim began with a simple conversation between faculty members Douglas K. Freeman and former Federal Reserve governor Elizabeth A. Duke over dinner in the late 1990s.
“On the back of a napkin, they sketched out over dinner, MarketSim. Essentially what they were looking for was something to fill a gap in the curriculum,” said Leventhal.
The solution to that problem according to Leventhal was MarketSim,
“What they were looking for was something to fill a gap in the curriculum. Year One in those days was the financial year, financial boot camp. Year Three was the senior shine time… And Year Two, [...] they decided to create the MarketSim simulation.”
In the simulation, students split into teams as simulated rival banks where they make strategic and tactical decisions that will affect the profitability of the institution by exploring customer segmentation, marketing, product, pricing, and delivery outcomes. The simulation is still a core part of the EBS curriculum and allows students to understand how their strategies build long-term, sustainable value for banks.
The structure of MarketSim’s instruction also reflects a broader change in EBS’s overall teaching method at the time. For many years, EBS followed a university lecture method of instruction. Today, EBS follows a method that uses group work to facilitate hands-on learning. Students are immersed in small group learning environments that enable experimentation with the learning objectives they are presented.
Paul Leventhal adds that this method has become a critical part of what EBS is and how it sets itself apart as a leading and innovative banking school, stating:
“We've got these two fundamental characteristics of EBS that are unique. One is bankers teaching bankers, and the other one is this breakout idea - the idea that you put students into small groups and they work in small groups to understand the material under the guidance of faculty.”
Faculty Stories
At EBS, the faculty prepares students to become leaders in banking, supporting them at each step of their EBS journey. CBA is proud to highlight three faculty members who have helped shape the program over the decades and illustrate how EBS has continually evolved while remaining committed to developing future leaders.
Jim Fugitte: A Developing Curriculum
Jim Fugitte is a Year Three faculty member and consultant who graduated from EBS in 1974 and joined as a lecturer a few years after graduation— his year marks Jim’s 51 year teaching at EBS. Jim began as an examiner at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Lexington, Ky., who was looking to pursue a graduate education. When he found out there was an opening at CBA’s Graduate School of Consumer Lending – or EBS – he decided to pursue the opportunity. As a student, he won the thesis award and had the opportunity to present his work at CBA’s national convention. A year after graduation, he joined the thesis faculty and in 1980 joined the annual faculty. Throughout his career, Fugitte witnessed and led many changes for the school.
When Fugitte began lecturing, the coursework focused on consumer lending, reflecting the interest of students and leadership at the time. As banking became more complex, coursework expanded beyond lending to include other aspects of the business. Fugitte was part of this change, developing his classes to include bank financial management and helping create a curriculum focused on a holistic view of banking.
“I taught [bank management] every morning for an hour to the first-year students, and I taught them what the board of directors did, the bank organization, how it got chartered, who the regulators were, what the laws were […] so I developed that completely from about 1982 or so, completely into the dominant curriculum that it is now.”
Ted Brauch: From Student to Faculty
Ted Brauch, faculty member and consultant, was nominated by his bank to attend EBS in 1993. Going into EBS, Brauch’s manager (and at the time EBS faculty member Douglas K. Freeman) told Brauch that he wanted him to think strategically and nominated him for the school to prepare him for the next steps in his career.
During his time at EBS, Brauch became acquainted with members of other institutions who he would have likely never interacted with at his own bank. He said it gave him a better perspective on the people who make up the industry and importance of building a strong connected network.
“It was a great opportunity to create a network [...] and it was also an awakening. Take the blinders off and really think more broadly. It brought me to another level and gave me the confidence to do something completely different, diametrically opposed to what I had done prior to joining school. So for me, it was a life-changing experience.”
After graduation, Brauch moved into a new leadership role at his institution to oversee the internal audit team. Using the concepts he learned at EBS, he was able to make an impact on the team and strengthen their understanding of bank financial performance.
“I was able to affect the culture in a positive way while enhancing the reputation or even the confidence of my team using the skills and knowledge that I'd learned from banking school,” he said.
Brauch, now a faculty member, is able to leverage his EBS experience to mentor future generations of students.
“What I tell people is the greatest reward is the joy I see in the students' eyes as they finally get it. When the light bulb goes on and they really understand it.”
Paul Leventhal: Creating BankCom
Paul Leventhal joined the faculty in the early 2000s and contributed to the development of new curriculum material for Year Three students, titled BankCom.
As a part of EBS faculty, Leventhal wrote and developed BankCom, an innovative banking simulation focusing on the overall management of a modern bank.
“[Paul] built this model from scratch without any influence from any prior models. He did it all by himself through research,” Brauch said.
According to Leventhal, BankCom is critical for Year Three students as a means to prepare them for the next level in their management careers.
“We're taking people who are already very successful… in their roles, and we want to put them in a position, a greater comfort level in taking roles that are more senior to the ones they're in now.”
BankCom also reinforces EBS's collaborative teaching philosophy by assigning students executive leadership roles that require teams to make decisions together. For Leventhal, BankCom was a pivotal moment in EBS.
“The big standout moment for me over the years has been the success of that first year. It ran through exactly as we had hoped it would run, and it was a big hit.”
Building Towards the Next 75 Years: Guiding Future Leaders in Banking
Over the past 75 years, EBS has continuously adapted its curriculum, teaching methods, and simulations to reflect the ever-changing banking industry. Its purpose of preparing banking leaders to think strategically, lead, and understand how every part of a bank works, however, has remained consistent.
“That's exactly why EBS exists, so that bankers actually know how [the bank] works and that they're ready for their next level career. I think that's exactly why it still works. It's an industry that has enduring financial principles that have been and still are in play for many years, for 75 years,” says CBA VP of Advanced Education at CBA Susan Stutz.
Stutz, also an EBS graduate, says her experience at EBS allows her to better support students when needed. “EBS has helped me now place myself in the seat of the students,” Stutz said. She recalls encouraging a student who questioned quitting the program. The same student went on to become a president at her bank. This experience for Stutz reinforces the impact of EBS on the future leadership of the banking industry.
Tom Dent, CBA SVP, Director of Executive Education highlights the importance of banking school to CBA’s commitment to its members.
“Our mission is built around this notion that consumers and small businesses have dreams that they need help fulfilling. And the banking industry play[s] a role in helping them fulfill those dreams. So,education is a big part of that – a knowledgeable banker is a capable banker.”
75 Years of CBA Members Investing Creating and Building an Even Better Industry.
For 75 years, CBA’s members have invested in their teams, their teammates’ futures, and the future of the industry.
Each year, students get to engage directly with a bank CEO, bank CFO and CRO, and the heads of the nation’s leading retail banks.
Participating executives have included:
- Lindsey Johnson, President and CEO, CBA
- Jay Brogdon, President, Simmons Bank
- Daniel Hobbs, Chief Financial Officer, Simmons Bank
- Brad Yaney, Chief Credit Risk Officer, Simmons Bank
- Meghan Milloy, Head of Communications, Institute of International Finance
- Jimmy Stead, Chief Consumer Banking and Technology Officer, Frost Bank
- Dana Nolan, Head of Investor Relations, Regions Bank (Retired)
- Adam Stockton, Managing Director, Curinos
- Lucas Malambri, VP, Advisory, Curinos
- Mark Pregmon, Former CBA Board Member
- Ryan Curley, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group
- Annie Bullock, Partner, Boston Consulting Group
- Trish Wexler, Managing Director, Corporate Communications, JPMorganChase
And numerous bank leaders have graduated from CBA’s Executive Banking School including:
- Wayne Akins (1992) – Chief Community Banking Officer, Synovus
- Archie Brown (1996) – President and CEO, First Financial
- Previous CBA Board Chair and Current Board Member Quincy Miller (2004) – President and Vice Chairman, Eastern Bank
- Previous CBA Board Chair Andy Harmening (2006) – President and CEO, Associated Bank
- Seth Waller (2012) – Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, EverBank
- Ali Maher (2012) – Executive Vice President and Head of Consumer Deposit Products and Payments, Regions
- Mary Kate Loftus (2013) – President, Impressia Bank
- Daniel Hobbs (2015), Chief Financial Officer, Simmons Bank
- Lori Von Heyking (2018) – Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Woodforest
- Among many others!
While bank technology and innovation have changed dramatically over the decades, many of the core fundamentals of banking remain as important as ever, and CBA’s mission to develop the next generation of bank leaders has never been more critical. CBA’s Executive Banking School is where that mission comes to life—preparing leaders not only to meet the challenges of today but to shape the future of banking with vision, integrity, and purpose. The investments we make in developing exceptional leaders today will define the strength, resilience, and success of our industry for generations to come. Together, we are building a legacy of leadership that will ensure banking continues to serve customers, communities, and our economy with excellence.
The future of banking will be shaped by the leaders we prepare today—and there is no greater investment in our industry's future than CBA's Executive Banking School.
To learn more about CBA’s Executive Banking School, click HERE.
