CorTrust President, CEO Jack Hopkins takes the reins as 2025-26 ICBA chair

Jack Hopkins knew the time was right.Hopkins, president and CEO of CorTrust Bank in Mitchell, S.D., had been asked a decade ago if he wanted to chair the Independent Community Bankers of America. He had said no, as he attended to family needs. At the time, his son, Spencer Hopkins, was playing football at the University of South Dakota..With his children now grown, Hopkins sees the current environment as ideal to continue his family’s legacy of advocating for the industry. Hopkins’ father, Boyd Hopkins Jr., co-founded the Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota in 1984. Jack remembers attending industry events with his father, and getting to know the ins-and-outs of the bank as a boy when his father and grandfather, Boyd Hopkins Sr., were heavily involved in the industry.Hopkins, BankBeat magazine’s 2020 “Banker of the Year,” had already been named state president and appointed to the ICBA ag committee in 1999. “That was just a given in our family, is that if you are going to do it, you are going to be all in,” Hopkins said. “And being all in means you are giving back to the whole industry, not just your bank and your community.”Hopkins was named chair of the Independent Community Bankers of America for the 2025-26 year last month during the association’s annual convention in Nashville, Tenn. He is the first South Dakota banker named ICBA chair.“I feel very honored to have been chosen, because there are a lot of good bankers around the country who don’t get the opportunity that I am going to get,” Hopkins added..‘He is passionate about community banking’CorTrust Sioux Falls Market President Roger Weber, who has worked with Hopkins for 20 years, knows his colleague keeps updated on the political and regulatory environment. Hopkins also has a strong understanding of how those regulations directly impact community banks compared with their larger peers.“He is passionate about community banking,” Weber said. “He can tell the story extremely well.”A member of the ICBA executive committee and board of directors, Hopkins chairs the Federal Delegate Board. Hopkins, president and chair for the Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota from 1999-2001, is also active in the Sioux Falls nonprofit community, serving on boards and providing guidance.Hopkins, who was named CorTrust CEO in 2004, oversaw the bank’s expansion in the ensuing two decades. The now-$1.5 billion CorTrust entered the Twin Cities market in 2009 by winning its bid on the failed Brickwell Community Bank of Woodbury. Central Bank of Stillwater, Minn., was the only other bidder.The acquisition proved a low-cost, if not exactly profitable, entry to the Twin Cities area. And it gave Hopkins and his team tangible experience to continue expanding. Hopkins already knew many of the Twin Cities major players and had watched their activities as he moved to Sioux Falls to build the bank’s first urbanized market roughly a decade prior to the expansion.CorTrust sought to deploy its capital as ag banking was booming at the time. CorTrust used bank stock loans and trust preferred securities, but had the available capital to be an active acquirer. Plus, expanding its metro presence beyond Sioux Falls was part of CorTrust’s strategic plan.The Twin Cities proved to have much more growth opportunities than Fargo, Omaha or Des Moines. CorTrust continued to bid on failed banks — those that had extended credit too aggressively, sank too deep into commercial real estate or had built portfolios on overstated appraisals — but competition for those businesses continued to increase, with the bank constantly landing in the No. 2 position. Hopkins understood there were more growth opportunities than just FDIC auctions, and used his connection with the ICBA and its state affiliates to raise awareness that he was a buyer.Hopkins’ approach proved successful. CorTrust acquired four Minnesota locations in nine years: In 2013, it acquired the $36 million Blaine State Bank; the following year, it bought a vacant bank building in nearby Brooklyn Park, Minn., and opened a de novo branch. In 2018, it acquired the $90 million State Bank of Delano, 30 miles west of Minneapolis. In 2019, CorTrust Bank acquired First Minnesota Bank, which increased the number of branches in Minnesota to 15 from four. The acquisition also increased CorTrust Bank’s assets at the time to $1.2 billion.Weber sees the bank’s growth as validating Hopkins’ hands-on approach to leadership. As CorTrust expanded, Hopkins was known for personally reviewing the loan files of the selling bank. As the Paycheck Protection Program was rolled out five years ago, Hopkins spent many late nights and weekends with his lending team ensuring customers would receive funding. Weber emphasized that Hopkins wasn’t just in a chair telling others what to do. Instead, he would key in loans himself.“Jack is just a hard worker,” Weber said. “He’s not afraid to dig in, do what it takes to get the job done. There’s really no task too big or too small for him.“That is leadership,” Weber added. “You’ve gotta lead from the front, and Jack leads from the front.”A family affairJack’s paternal grandfather, Boyd Hopkins, Sr., acquired controlling interest in Artesian, S.D.-based Livestock State Bank, the precursor to CorTrust Bank, in 1961. Hopkins Jr. joined the bank in 1972, with Jackhelping even as a kid, learning every job. By the early 1980s, Jack’s father and grandfather understood the industry would consolidate and that CorTrust, as a historically agricultural bank, would need to grow and diversify to survive. That understanding was especially crucial during the agricultural crisis of the 1980s, a downturn that decimated many family farms.“They knew that if they survived through that tough time, that it would get better again,” Hopkins said. “That’s what it’s all about, helping people through the tough times and staying with them. They had a commitment, and I guess at that point I really didn’t understand the commitment they were making to stay in the business.”An active bank acquirer in the 1980s, Boyd Jr. brought the bank to Sioux Falls and played a crucial role in growing CorTrust to 19 branches in 2004. A 1984 graduate of University of South Dakota, Hopkins took a job out of college in the auditing department at one of the big eight accounting firms. On the road much of the time, Hopkins sought more stability, and accepted a job offer at Twin Cities-based Firstar Bank (now U.S. Bank).Hopkins eventually faced a choice: Continue working at Firstar Bank and move to Milwaukee or return to South Dakota to work at the family bank. He chose the latter. A trained accountant, Hopkins had already worked for his family’s bank during summers when he was in college, and was aware of back-office responsibilities. Also, Hopkins was attracted to the relatively small-town atmosphere at CorTrust Bank.Hopkins spent 18 months in Webster, before moving to Yankton to manage a branch. He eventually moved to Sioux Falls, where he was named market president. Even after he was named CEO in 2004, Boyd Jr. continued to offer advice to his son when asked. He also advocated for Jack’s decisions to the board, while allowing his son to make his own way in the organization.“I was in Jack’s office and we were talking about a new possible location in Sioux Falls,” Weber recalled in the BankBeat article recognizing Jack as “Banker of the Year.” “We were kicking around cost/benefit analysis given the location and Boyd walked in and asked what we were talking about. We gave him the lay of the land and he looked it all over, gave us some input, and then he got up and said, ‘Well, when you guys make a decision, let me know what it is.’ Then he turned around and walked out. For somebody who’s grown the bank … I can’t imagine that was an easy thing to do. But it’s the right thing if you truly want to turn over the reins.”Fast forward to today, and Jack’s daughter, McKinzie, is the fourth generation of her family to work at the bank. McKinzie, who joined CorTrust Bank in 2018, has served on the bank board of directors and compliance committee, while managing credit analyst and loan processing teams in the Minnesota market. Similar to her father, Hopkins was encouraged to consider a career at CorTrust only after establishing herself somewhere else — known in the family as the Four Year Rule.CorTrust’s management ethos is outlined as “family first.” The bank has an ESOP and wants employees not to be worried about their jobs when they tend to family needs.Hopkins: Community banks need own voiceHopkins hopes leadership changes at regulatory agencies will lead to regulatory relief during his time as chair. He is seeking hearings this year on the tax exemption enjoyed by credit unions, and supports extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act..Hopkins supports repealing Section 1071, saying the rule would drive many community banks out of business. The fate of Section 1071 is in serious jeopardy after the Trump administration stopped defending the rule against existing lawsuits and made significant staffing cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Despite community banks and their larger peers being on the same page the majority of the time, Hopkins still sees independent representation as essential for community banks when the goals of the two size groups are at odds. The largest banks lack interest in being in smaller communities, Hopkins said, with most having either completely left rural areas or being headquartered on the East or West coasts. He said regulations initially planned for the largest banks have trickled down to community financial institutions.“If we allow the larger banks to dictate what the rules are going to be, they are going to set up the rules so that it’s made for the community banks to fail, so we need an industry voice that just protects the community banks,” Hopkins said.ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said Hopkins’ experience in advocating for the industry make him the right leader to help pass pro-community bank policies supported by the association. The ICBA supports ending the tax exemptions on credit unions, industrial loan companies and the Farm Credit System, and eliminating hurdles to establish de novos.“Jack has been called upon to testify on behalf of community banks, and to represent their interests before policymakers because he knows firsthand the challenges they face, and he will continue to champion their unique story to ensure their voices shape the future of banking,” said Romero Rainey.