Independent Banker - March 2023 - 59

Tenacious. Trustworthy.
Thoughtful. Genuine.
Professional.
These descriptors read like a checklist of desired
executive attributes, and yet, they offer only a
sampling of the words colleagues and friends use
to describe Terry Jorde, ICBA senior executive
vice president and chief of staff.
" She's a remarkable leader, " says Lindsay
LaNore, group executive vice president and chief
learning and experience officer at ICBA. " She's
not only a leader at ICBA but also a leader of
the industry and previously at her bank. Her
strength in leadership has been a constant. "
As Jorde prepares to retire in April 2023, she
leaves a legacy that includes both her efforts to
support community banking and the personal
relationships she has established along the way.
But if you ask her, it's all in a day's work.
" Being a community banker is really an
amazing career, " Jorde says. " It has been so
fulfilling, and everything you put into this
industry, you get back and more. "
That may be true, but those who know her
point to the ways she has shaped industry
outcomes and ICBA's direction over the years.
THE CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL
" Her story is one that will inspire future
generations of community bankers, " says
Rebeca Romero Rainey, ICBA president and
chief executive officer. " The way she led the
organization, the way she led as a community
banker, it was about constantly putting the
industry first. Terry led the way for so many of
us to think about how we can make an impact in
just raising our hands and getting involved, and
her impact has gone so far beyond that. "
With a career in community banking under
her belt, Jorde lives and breathes the values of
the industry and exemplifies what it means to
be a community banker. However, when she
reflects on her college-aged self, Jorde confesses
she had a very different trajectory in mind.
" I lived in a suburb
of Chicago and got
my finance degree
from the University
of Illinois, " she says.
" I was a city girl and
had every intention
of going to work at
some big bank on
Lake Shore Drive
in Chicago. "
Fortunately for
community bankers
everywhere, Jorde
met her husbandto-be,
Mike, whose
family owned a potato
farm in Cando, N.D.,
where he planned
to live. That's when
Jorde decided to
explore opportunities
outside of the bright
lights of the big city.
" We hadn't been
together that long,
and Mike convinced
me to go with him, "
she says. " His father,
" Terry led
the way for so
many of us to
think about
how we can
make an impact
in just raising
our hands
and getting
involved, and
her impact has
gone so far
beyond that. "
-Rebeca Romero Rainey, ICBA
uncle and several businessmen had started
a bank. I was newly married and started as a
teller and bookkeeper, and that's how I came
into community banking. " Perhaps there was a
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Independent Banker - March 2023

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