Three hundred participants from around the country and two from Belize are advancing their banking industry leadership skills during the 65th session of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) at SMU. The SWGSB Foundation, headquartered at the Cox School of Business on the campus of Southern Methodist University, kicked off in-person graduate school last week for this year’s summer program. The curriculum focuses on leadership development of participants over three years. Along with first-year or “freshmen” participants, second- and third-year students, referred to as “juniors” and “seniors,” are taking classes at the Cox School’s Collins Executive Education Center through Thursday, June 9. Senior bank managers and those tapped by management for executive training take part in leadership sessions led by industry consultants, top bank executives, SMU Cox professors and other academics.
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“Since 1957, when a group of Dallas banking leaders and top administrators at Southern Methodist University founded SWGSB, our goal has been to teach bankers how to be leaders in their industry,” said SWGSB Foundation President and CEO Jeffrey R. Schmid. “For more than six decades, thousands of financial services professionals have taken part in our elite banking management programs, and we’re proud to say that SWGSB alumni fill the senior ranks of financial institutions, bank regulatory agencies and bank affiliated organizations throughout North America and beyond.”
The current session culminates Thursday, June 9, with the graduation of SWGSB Class 62, consisting of 72 participants who began the program in 2019. This is the first year since the start of the pandemic that SWGSB students have met entirely on-site for the full “SWGSB experience”—allowing all 300 participants to network, bond peer-to-peer and learn from each other.
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“This year’s program also marks a 65-year partnership between SMU, the Cox School of Business and the SWGSB Foundation to provide graduate-level continuing education for those in the financial services industry,” said Schmid. “Our students, the banking industry and the broader community benefit from that strong university and business school connection and the exceptional world-class executive education experience that we have forged together.”
During its keynote banquet and alumni dinner on June 2, SWGSB honored two distinguished industry leaders and trustees: J. Rogers Pope, Jr., vice chairman and CEO of Texas Bank and Trust, and Robert L. Clarke, founder of Bracewell LLP’s global financial services practice, and former United States Comptroller of the Currency. The keynote was delivered by entrepreneur and philanthropist John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE in Atlanta, Georgia.
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