President and CEO
Few banks put on street festivals. So Jill Castilla did not have a playbook to follow when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Heard on Hurd, the monthly event her bank hosts in downtown Edmond, Oklahoma, featuring live music and food trucks.
Nonetheless, she and her team at Citizens Bank of Edmond hit on alternative ways to keep serving the community. They installed a pop-up shop in windowfront space inside the bank’s headquarters building and invited local entrepreneurs to take up residence on a rotating basis under a partnership with the Oklahoma-based Independent Shopkeepers Association. Citizens pitched the opportunity as a low-cost way to get more visibility and a low-risk way for the merchants to test expanding into the local area or converting from online to brick-and-mortar.
Since opening early this year, the Retail Incubator for the Shopkeeper Experience has attracted more than 70 startups and small-business applicants. Four women-owned and two minority-owned businesses are among those that have participated.
“The pandemic reaffirmed for me that community matters the most,” said Castilla, who has been leading the $350 million-asset bank since 2014.
The retail incubator was one of many ways Castilla and her bank adapted to pandemic-induced disruptions to business as usual. Citizens also offered curbside service for customers (think tellers as car-hops, in a way) and streamlined its digital bank offerings, among other changes.
Citizens even gained national attention for some of its efforts. Most famously, it teamed up with the billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban to develop a free, online portal for small businesses to secure forgiveness for Paycheck Protection Program loans.
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Castilla has created a culture where innovation can come from employees at every level, from tellers to vice presidents. She also encourages innovative thinking when it comes to advancing women in the industry.
“I believe that women’s propensity to serve in operational leadership roles makes us perfectly suited to lead innovative banks,” she said. “However, regulators and many boards still view lending as the gateway to bank leadership. We need to celebrate the ascension of leaders through nontraditional means and encourage women in these areas to see a pathway to the C-suite.”
