Outstanding Women in Banking 2025: Sharon Presnall

Advocacy over a career makes a lasting impact on Iowa bankingIf the initial years of a budding career are particularly challenging, and the newbie comes through unscathed, she’s likely to thrive during steadier times. Sharon Presnall started her career at the Iowa Bankers Association in 1985, a year out of Iowa State University having spent the previous year as a reporter for a newspaper in Fort Dodge. It was the height of the agricultural crisis, and Presnall’s job at the IBA was to write about the banking industry during one of the most challenging periods since the Great Depression. .“It was a horrible time,” reflected Presnall, who four decades later with the same employer holds the title senior vice president, government relations/compliance. “Everyone was sympathetic with the farmers, which they should have been, but it was a very hard time for bankers, too. It was really difficult. During those first five years, I always thought, ‘there is nowhere to go but up’.”Presnall’s IBA career unfolded on the upward trajectory she envisioned, switching from communications to government relations once Wes Ehrecke left when he got the executives’ job at the Minnesota Bankers Association in 1995. Focusing mostly on issues at the state level, Presnall became a fixture at the Iowa state Capitol as she advocated for bankers on interstate banking and branching, the treatment of public deposits in the event of a bank failure, and tax parity with competitors, among other things. As an association professional who has devoted her career to supporting bankers and their industry, BankBeat magazine is recognizing Presnall as a 2025 selection in its “Outstanding Women in Banking” program. “She has been a lobbyist for the IBA for over 40 years, and has had an incredible impact on banking policy in the state of Iowa,” said IBA President and CEO Adam Gregg, who nominated Presnall. “Most notably, she successfully advocated for a provision which essentially provided tax parity for banks and credit unions at the state level.”Although IBA and other pro-banking organizations have been advocating for credit unions to pay income taxes, tax parity on a state level was achieved in Iowa by lowering the tax banks pay. In recent years, Presnall executed the IBA campaign to reduce the franchise tax banks are required to pay under Iowa law to something roughly equivalent to the money and credits tax that credit unions pay. The move is literally saving Iowa banks millions of dollars. Calling politics “a contact sport,” Presnall said the political environment today is not much different than it was at the start of her career. “People say politics has changed and gotten a lot worse,” Presnall noted. “I would say ‘probably not’.” She said that the rhetoric around the dinner table at many homes during the holidays is probably more volatile than it is in the Capitol. At the state level, she said, lawmakers have to pass a budget and at the end of the day they still talk to each other.She noted the growing importance of Political Action Committees. “They are a reform,” she commented. “I don’t know if there is a better way or not, but they do allow a lot of small donors to come together and make a difference.” Presnall commented that an IBA PAC that used to raise about $40,000 per year when she initially started working at the association now raises more than a quarter of a million dollars per year.Acknowledging the leadership of the three IBA CEO’s under whom she has worked — Neil Milner, John Sorensen and Gregg — Presnall also cited a fellow lobbyist among her mentors: Richard Berglund, who served as the executive vice president of the Iowa Independent Bankers from the group’s inception in 1971 until 1998 when he retired. She said he wrote much of the state’s banking code and that as chief clerk of the Senate, he thoroughly understood the workings of the Legislature. “Dick was a very good mentor to me,” she reminisced. “We worked closely together. He knew the banking code inside and out; he was great, teaching me and sharing all the background with me.” Presnall said she is particularly proud of some of the people she has hired as they advanced along their own career paths. She cited Bob Hartwig, who is president of Iowa Bankers Mortgage Corporation. “We worked at the Capitol together for a long time,” Presnall said, noting Hartwig’s unique background which included a stint working in a bank before obtaining a law degree. “I’m very proud to see that he’s moved up and taken over.”Presnall also cited the recent promotion of another one of her hires as a source of pride — Jenica Lensmeyer who recently was promoted to vice president of marketing and industry relations.Most impressive in the banking industry are the bankers themselves, Presnall said. “I have always been amazed by how nice the bankers are. When talking to lawmakers, they always put their customers ahead of themselves, sometimes to their own detriment. They really do care about their customers and communities,” she said.Maybe it’s the bankers or maybe it’s the lawmakers, but Presnall said that throughout her career she never felt she was held back as a woman. “I never felt I was treated any differently,” she said. “If you just make sure you are doing the right thing, it generally works out. I never had a bad feeling that because I was a woman I didn’t have the same opportunities.”