Preparing Future Banking Leaders in a Rapidly Evolving Industry: Highlights from EBS 2025
This guest blog comes from Stephanie Solomon, a junior at Georgetown University. She joined the Consumer Bankers Association’s (CBA) Public Affairs team as a part of our summer 2025 internship program.
During her time with CBA, Stephanie worked on many projects to develop her public affairs skills, including the creation of this blog highlighting the importance of CBA’s Executive Banking School in preparing the next generation of banking leaders.
Introduction
The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) recently concluded the 2025 session of its Executive Banking School (EBS), held at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. This year, CBA welcomed a record high of nearly 400 students, a notable increase from a little over 300 just three years ago. This remarkable growth reflects both the demand for top-tier banking education for bank executives and the increasing complexity of the financial services landscape.
As the banking industry continues to rapidly evolve amidst new technological advancements and shifting consumer preferences, CBA’s mission to develop foundationally strong bank leaders is more important now than ever.
The Value of EBS in an Evolving, Technical Banking Landscape
Banking is changing fast — with the implications of AI and stablecoins increasingly influencing regulation, competition, and consumer safety — and these shifts require adaptable, well-prepared leaders.
This year, conversations around AI integration were new and timely additions to the EBS curriculum.
With a 50-year career in banking, and past service as Chairman of the Faculty Advisory Committee at the CBA Executive Banking School, Jim Fugitte has seen the financial services industry change firsthand. This year, he emphasized the growing importance of AI literacy in terms of information access:
“They need to understand, number one, how to use [AI technology], that it's all based in the prompting the questions you ask it, and then your ability to ask follow up questions,” Fugitte said. “It is a rapidly evolving solution to all information providing applications.”
“Finance and banking has a lot of statistics on the web, so AI applications or questions in that area are very robust in their answers. They're excellent answers,” Fugitte said. “There’s no reason for you to wonder any longer why this happens, why that happens in an economic context. Just ask your AI engine and it will tell you.”
2025 EBS faculty touched on these emerging topics without losing focus on the timeless, foundational principles of retail banking leadership.
What Sets EBS Apart
EBS is led by a faculty of real-world practitioners who educate based on practical banking foundations. As of 2025, 94 percent of faculty are current or retired bankers, instructing based on the challenges they face daily. Many faculty members are EBS graduates themselves, providing continuity that reinforces the relevance and sense of community across student cohorts.
Furthermore, the education provided at EBS is rigorous and interactive. Students engage in case studies, simulations, and collaborative exercises that reflect real-world scenarios. This applied knowledge reinforces the preparedness of tomorrow’s banking industry leaders.
Angela Conti, an EBS 2019 graduate and EVP, Head of Consumer and Small Business at Cambridge Savings Bank, credits the program as a turning point in her career.
"The immersive learning experience at CBA Executive Banking School was truly transformative for me — through the simulations, team breakout sessions and active engagement with faculty — I was able to practice what I learned in a safe environment, get immediate feedback, and connect the dots so I could apply those learnings at work. After the onsite session, I was able to demonstrate what I learned in a Capstone project that opened doors for me to connect with executive leaders across multiple areas of the bank,” Conti said. “CBA EBS was a clear catalyst in my career, and I'm honored to now serve on the faculty team to help the next generation of banking leaders gain as much as I did from this high-impact, immersive learning experience!"
Graduates emerge with the tools to manage change — not just understand it.
The Value of In-Person Networking
The EBS setting in the dorms of Furman University further cultivates professional and personal student interaction, where key learning moments come from informal hallway discussions, late-night dorm debates, and real-time educational exercises.
The presence of high-profile speakers, this year including bank retail executives, gives students rare, direct access to today’s top banking leaders. These face-to-face interactions offer not only insight into executive-level thinking but also open the door to valuable mentorship and long-term professional relationships.
The strong alumni network that emerges from EBS continues to grow and support students throughout their careers.
Success Stories and Career Impact
The EBS program has served as a launching pad for many industry leaders, including alumni like CBA Board Members Todd Barnhart, Executive Vice President at PNC and Quincy Miller, President and COO at Eastern Bank, whose careers reflect the program’s long-term value in accelerating professional growth. They continue to voice their support for the professional development that EBS fosters.
Barnhart is a 2008 graduate of EBS (then called CBA Graduate School of Retail Bank Management), where he completed the program with honors. Since his time at EBS, Barnhart has held many leadership positions at PNC, ranging from Deposit Products, Business Banking, Corporate Banking, and Treasury Management, demonstrating how the program supports and cross-functional expertise:
“It was an incredibly powerful experience,” Barnhart said, recalling his own time as an EBS student. “It gave me a really good, broad perspective of how a total bank works, and early in my career as a mid-level manager, having that sort of view was new and unique, and seeing how all the pieces, decisions were connected really made a difference and helped me think more strategically as I went forward. Secondly, the network of people both at PNC and across the industry was invaluable and I keep in touch with many of those people today.”
EBS’ alumni exemplify how the banking school equips future banking leaders with the skills, knowledge, and network to accelerate their careers and make a lasting impact on the banking industry.
EBS for the Future
Today’s financial services environment requires more than banking proficiency — it requires adaptable, strategic leaders who can navigate change while remaining grounded in the core principles of retail banking. Whether you are a bank executive looking to invest in your team or an ambitious banker seeking to advance your career, consider joining the next cohort of CBA’s Executive Banking School. The future of banking is changing quickly. Let’s make sure our future leaders are ready.
