Independent Community Bankers of Colorado

10/30/2026

🎉 Congratulations, Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson! We are honored to award you with the ICBC's Legislative Excellence Award. 🇺🇸

This Independent Community Bankers of Colorado Award recognizes individuals who work tirelessly to champion meaningful legislation, foster collaboration and solutions, and represent the best interests of their constituents.

Senate Minority Leader Simpson you exemplify the highest standards of public service and legislative achievement. And we are so grateful for you, your team, and your service.

As a fourth-generation farmer and rancher in the San Luis Valley, Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson looks at policy through a lens of rural Colorado. He leads and listens to folks in his district and all across Colorado covering challenges as varied as groundwater to behavioral health.

We are very proud to honor you with the ICBC Legislative Excellence Award! Congratulations. 🏆️

And thank you to Alamosa State Bank for hosting us.

Pictured: Chas Moeller, President, Alamosa State Bank. Senate Minority Leader, Cleave Simpson. Mike Van Norstrand, Executive Director, ICBC. Joe Martinez, CEO/President, San Luis Valley Federal Bank (and Board President for ICBC).

10/30/2026

10/29/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Senator Chris Kolker on receiving the ICBC Champion of Main Street Award. This award is given to lawmakers who work in the best interest of local communities. They keep Main Street a priority above the roar of competing interests at the statehouse.

Senator Kolker moved to Colorado in 1999 from rural Iowa, where he was raised by a John Deere factory worker and school secretary. He spent summers helping out on the family farm and can trace his vast respect for agricultural workers and small businesses from his time on the plains.

Chris has served in a number of diverse roles across his community, from teaching high school social studies to being a certified financial planner and small business owner. This unique perspective, along with his wife Tara's experience as a middle school counselor, has allowed Chris to focus on supporting public education, expanding mental health services, and creating a smart, sensible budget that can best serve his constituents' needs.

In 2021, Chris was sworn into the Colorado State Senate as the first Democrat to ever hold this seat, which encompasses most of the city of Centennial, some of Englewood, Littleton, and Greenwood Village.

We applaud his dedication 🏆️ and thank him for his service to our communities.

Our thanks to Bank of Colorado for hosting us.

Pictured (final frame): Cara Blackwell, Teller II/New Accounts, Bank of Colorado. John Wharton, Loan Officer. Senator Chris Kolker. Mike Van Norstrand, ICBC Executive Director. Anastasia Rulon, Branch Operations Manager. Stefanie Reid, Teller II/New Accounts.

10/28/2026

🎉 Congratulations and thank you, Senator Byron Pelton! We are honored to award you with the ICBC Spirit of Independence Award. 🇺🇸

This award is given to those legislators who stand firmly in the face of partisan political opposition and competing special interest groups to represent their constituent’s viewpoint at the Capitol.

We 👏🏼 applaud your service for the great people in the counties of District 1: Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Yuma, and parts of Weld.

Your work and service to our country and this state stretch across decades. We are grateful for your leadership in the 🇺🇸 U.S. Navy, as a County Commissioner, rancher and electrician, and now your time in the Colorado Senate.

We have witnessed your fight to protect agriculture in northeast Colorado. All while working tirelessly to protect the Constitution and citizen rights from government overreach and unnecessary regulations.

The Spirit of Independence Award is in good hands with you, Senator Pelton! Congratulations. 🏆️

And thank you to First FarmBank in Sterling for hosting us.

Pictured: Senator Byron Pelton, Travis Goeglein, Senior Vice President, First FarmBank in Sterling.

10/24/2026

We offer our 👏🏼thanks and 🎉 congratulations to House Minority Leader, Jarvis Caldwell, for his tireless work at the Colorado State Capital.

Representative Caldwell is a U.S. Air Force veteran, and elected member of the Colorado House, has made a positive impact supporting the communities and local economies served by Colorado’s community banks. His strong commitment to policies that help small businesses and towns thrive have earned him our ICBC Champion of Main Street Award.🏆

The Independent Community Bankers of Colorado applaud how Representative Caldwell advocates for balanced regulation, tax stability, and practical policies that allow Colorado businesses to grow without added burdens.

He brings steady guidance and a focus on accountable, effective government. He emphasizes that Colorado families and communities deserve safety, opportunity, and support, making his leadership meaningful for the towns and businesses that form the backbone of the state’s economy. His willingness to collaborate across party lines demonstrates a commitment to real results for everyday Coloradans.

Our thanks to First National Bank Colorado who hosted the award presentation at their Flying Horse location in Colorado Springs.

Pictured: Quentin Leighty, President, Monument and Flying Horse offices; Chief Financial Officer and Director. Representative Jarvis Caldwell, Mike Van Norstrand, Executive Director, ICBC.

10/23/2026

Banking regulations can change fast. Having experienced legal counsel who understand the intracity of banking law makes a meaningful difference.

ICBC is pleased to welcome ✨️Taft Law as a new Associate Member. Taft brings experience in financial services law.

⚖️ Taft's attorneys advise financial institutions on regulatory compliance and risk management. The firm also works with banks on financing transactions and financial services litigation.

For community banks, their experience can be especially valuable when a regulatory question becomes more complicated or a financing matter requires specialized legal guidance.

Taft Law has been serving clients for 140 years. Today, the firm has more than 1,250 attorneys and maintains offices in Denver and Colorado Springs.

✨️ We’re grateful to welcome Taft Law to the ICBC network and look forward to connecting our member banks with another resource they can turn to when they need experienced legal guidance.

10/22/2026

It is our honor to award Senate Minority Leader Simpson with the ICBC Legislative Excellence Award. This award honors lawmakers who understand the paramount issues facing community banks and the customers we serve. The recipient of this award crafts sound policy to assist community banks, while balancing the multitude of interests clamoring to be heard in the state Capitol. We are all recipients of a better Colorado thanks to you!

10/22/2026

✨️ Collaboration is key.

Lions in a pride work together. Teamwork makes the pride virtually unbeatable. While some of the pride creeps close to the target...other lions fan out to cut off exit routes. Their success lies in strategy, trust, and partnerships.

Our ✨️ convention exhibitors have a positive target in their sights...solutions and innovative ideas for our community bankers.

And they loved hearing from our leaders about the challenges they're seeing in today's fast-paced marketplace.

It's a great collaboration and our pride is grrrrrrrateful for all of them! 🦁

10/21/2026

🏆️ Congratulations, Corbin Jagers, graduate of McClave High School. 🎉 He is one of our 2026 ICBC Scholarship recipients.

Corbin is attending West Texas A&M University where his anticipated major is Agriculture Business and Economics. Corbin plans to become a local bank loan officer. His sponsoring bank is McClave State Bank. Congrats, Corbin!

10/20/2026

🌟 Congratulations to Representative Anthony Hartsook, recipient of ICBC’s Champion of Main Street Award.

We’re so grateful for his dedication to serving others...from your decades in the U.S. Army all the way to your work today at the Colorado Capitol.

Thank you and congratulations! 🌟

Representative Hartsook grew up in a construction family, which means he experienced, firsthand, the hard work that goes into building and growing a business.

After 26 years in the Army, he retired and found his next home in business development for a service-disabled veteran-owned small business.

Since joining the Colorado House of Representatives in 2023, Representative Hartsook has worked on a variety of issues affecting Colorado businesses. He has also supported financial literacy education for Colorado high school students.

Representative Hartsook, thank you for your service and for the work you continue to do for Colorado.

And thank you to Jeffrey Walker, President, C.C.O., and Board Member at and Braxton Johnson, Market President, Parker, for hosting us. 🌟