Durham's career goes from classroom to board room.Cathy Durham, outside director for Lake Ridge Bank in Middleton, Wis., and former president of Capital Valuation, didn't start her career in a traditional way — and it’s paid off. She is being recognized as an “Amazing Outside Director” for 2026 by BankBeat magazine.After receiving her degree in elementary education and a master’s in reading, she moved to Madison, Wis., at age 23, just in time for the school district to announce mass teacher layoffs. Pivoting quickly, Durham drew from her accounting experience from working at a newspaper and found a job doing bookkeeping in Madison. There, she worked often with the founder of Capital Valuation, Ted Gunkel. Later on, when she was looking for a new job, she reached out to Gunkel, thinking he might be able to direct her to another company. Instead, he hired her.Despite initial feelings of imposter syndrome, Durham found her rhythm with the company. “As someone entering the firm without an industry background, I had a valuable outsider’s lens, which I used to help translate complex concepts, both in our writing and in our teaching, into more accessible language for both our technical and non- technical audiences,” she said. “Ted and other members of our firm were also deeply committed to teaching and knowledge-sharing with attorneys, judges and business owners — so I fed naturally into the teaching side.”After five years, she left Capital Valuation, but eventually Gunkel reached out again to see if she would come back. “I said I was interested, but I really needed to go back and get my MBA if I was going to do this,” Durham said. “It was important to me that I gained the necessary credentials to be able to sign reports and testify. So that’s what I did. At age 43, I went back to the university and earned my MBA while raising four kids, with my husband’s help.”Once she’d received her MBA, she returned to Capital Valuation and became an owner. It was a boutique company with never more than 11 employees, and as president, Durham’s job was to engage with the community and promote visibility for the company.Again, her education degree came in handy as she often found herself teaching. This time, of course, it was about business valuation and ways to increase value in a business rather than elementary reading.Through this work, she was first introduced to Lake Ridge Bank. The CEO, Jim Tubbs, saw her skills and knew she would be a great addition to the bank’s board of directors. Durham said her decades of business experience set her up well for her role at the bank. Her familiarity with financial statements and financial trends made the learning curve less steep, and her unique combination of business and education experience made her an expert communicator. She worked hard to increase the readability of board packets.“I’d ask the staff, ‘when you provide reports, please add executive summaries, dashboards and explanations of the many acronyms to increase our ease of reading and focus,’” she said. “[I’d always be] thinking about how it feels to come from a non-banking background. And I think I’ve made it safe to ask questions and reinforced that questions are expected and supported, regardless of experience level. Often, the questions asked addressed points that others were also considering but hadn’t yet voiced.”These qualities are a big part of what Durham said makes a good bank director. She emphasized the importance of preparation before meetings, something that typically means hours of looking at materials and conducting research.“I always ask questions,” Durham said. “Not everyone does. Being engaged and not afraid to ask questions is really important. It is also important to consistently operate at a strategic level, ensuring focus remains on long-term, strategic objectives, rather than operational details. This has at times been a challenge, as business valuation requires deep attention to detail. I’ve learned to be intentional about stepping back to maintain a strategic perspective.”According to Durham, maintaining a curiosity and willingness to learn is always crucial. She explained that she’s constantly reading banking magazines and attending training sessions to become a better bank director.Durham additionally played a role in structural shifts at Lake Ridge Bank. When she started serving on the board, the chair was also the chair of every committee, something Durham found unfamiliar. In her experience, most boards rotated committee leadership. With Durham’s input, the board soon adopted a rotating leadership. Now, Durham chairs the Audit and Risk Committee.Durham’s advice to business owners is to be constantly looking ahead. “You’d be amazed how many business owners are convinced they’re never going to die and they’re never going to need to hand over the reins of their business,” she said. “I would usually get some laughter when I would say, ‘One way or the other, the statistics are pretty clear — nobody’s getting out of here alive.’ You’re either going to walk out of your business with it under your control and your planned outcome, or you’re going to get carried out feet first, leaving a mess for your family. ... The choice is yours, and the impact on your family is yours.”She used the analogy of the windshield of a car. “You don’t get surprised if you continue to read and look ahead — more time looking out the windshield, less time in the rearview mirror.”Reflecting on her career as a woman in a male-dominated field, things weren’t always easy for Durham. She struggled to get flexibility around her working hours when she had three little kids (and a teenaged stepdaughter) at home. “I had to lie to go to my kids’ school events, saying I had a doctor’s appointment. That juggling — worker and mother — there’s no perfect way to do it.”When she came back to Capital Valuation in a leadership position many years later, she was instrumental in changing the company’s culture by ensuring the business they ran was family friendly.“Sitting at the board table, I was, for nearly 10 years, the only woman,” she said. “When discussing governance and board candidates, I contributed to increased awareness around compensation equity and the value of representation, emphasizing the importance of current and future potential clients seeing themselves reflected in our board, our staff and institution as a whole. Other board members later commented to me, ‘If you hadn’t raised that point, I wouldn’t have been tuned into it.’”While the “old boys network” is still alive, Durham is watching it change from the work she and other women are doing. “I’ve raised three daughters and one son, and my daughters are not worried about imposter syndrome,” she said.“The key is saying things in a way people are open to hearing,” Durham continued, a sentiment that can apply to being a business owner and bank director, too. “Humor has helped me. Examples have helped me. And watching great communicators on the board has helped me, too.”
