Ask Jeremy Bunkers how he became the incoming president of our board of directors, and he won’t start with banking. He’ll start with a food processing plant.
Bunkers grew up in Remsen and moved to a farm at age 10, long before agriculture or banking were ever on his radar as a career. His first job was at a food processing plant, working 15-hour days six days a week, a pace that wasn’t sustainable for himself or his family long term, and one that pushed him to start looking for something new. He waited nearly two months for the bank to call, and came close to taking a job selling loaders on tractors in Sloan instead.
So in March of 2007, almost on a whim, he took a teller/CSR position at the bank he’d been banking with forever, American Bank, never guessing it would lead him to a leadership position.
Within six months, his supervisor took a position at a different bank, leaving Bunkers in a new role and, by his own account, not really knowing what he was doing yet. That’s when Dale Den Herder, the bank’s owner, stepped in. The two had always been on the same page, and Den Herder made sure Bunkers had what he needed to learn the ropes.
His background in agriculture helped him pick up a side of the business he wasn’t yet involved in but knew held real opportunity, eventually landing him in agriculture and commercial lending.
About a year later, the bank started the hiring process for a branch manager position and struggled to find outside candidates who were a good fit. Den Herder didn’t see the point in looking further. He already had a good guy for the job, and the role became Bunkers’.
Bunkers continued to find himself in management roles, and he was completely okay with that.
“I enjoy managing people and just growing people and empowering them,” said Bunkers.
That trajectory carried Bunkers into the CEO’s office at American Bank by 2019.
Ask Bunkers who shaped that climb the most, and the answer doesn’t change: Dale Den Herder, American Bank’s owner, and the most influential mentor of his career.
Bunkers watched Den Herder’s own civic involvement transform his hometown of Sioux Center, Iowa, teaching him what a community banker’s impact can really look like.
That leadership taught Bunkers a philosophy he still lives by: “Do what’s best for the customer, do what’s best for your community, and everything else will fall in line.”
Today, Bunkers serves as CEO of American Bank, based in LeMars, Remsen, Marcus, and the surrounding Iowa communities.
The bank’s focus reflects the region it serves. “We’re really concentrated in ag lending,” Bunkers said. “That was kind of what I enjoyed the most, and it was easy for me because I could understand it from growing up on a farm.”
That same connection to the community carries into how the bank shows up for it. “When organizations are doing a fundraiser or some kind of project, we’re always the first ones they go to, to make that initial donation or push to set the bar for everyone else,” Bunkers said. That commitment held during the early days of the Paycheck Protection Program, when the application portal was expected to open at midnight. “We sat here until four in the morning waiting by our computers for the website to go live,” Bunkers said.
He and his wife, Stacy, a reading instructional coach in LeMars, her hometown, chose to move back home in 2004 after the birth of their first child so they could raise their family closer to relatives. Today, they’re raising four kids: Jaxon, Mya, Hallie, and Jayze. When work allows, Bunkers can usually be found outdoors: he picked up hunting after attending CBI’s pheasant hunt and recently added a hunting dog to the mix.
That connection to community didn’t stay confined to the bank, either. After joining the CBI board in 2019, Bunkers gained a firsthand look at the work the association was doing on behalf of Iowa’s community banks. The more involved he became, the more he came to appreciate the value of bringing bankers together, advocating for their interests and strengthening an industry so closely tied to the communities it serves.
Now, as CBI’s newly named board president, Bunkers wants to keep that same energy focused on what will make the greatest difference for Iowa’s community banks. That means taking on the bigger, more complicated issues facing the industry while also giving board members practical, ready-to-use ways to help strengthen CBI. One example is identifying nearby non-member banks worth a phone call or visit, not simply to grow membership, but to help more community bankers see the resources, connections and support CBI can provide to strengthen their banks and, ultimately, the communities they serve.
He’s just as direct about the challenges ahead. Fraud and bank consolidation, he says, are the two threats facing Iowa’s community banks right now. He’d rather spend energy on those than on debates over credit unions or cryptocurrency. In his view, banks that sell usually aren’t failing; they’re simply out of successors.
“I think the reason people are merging and selling is because they don’t have succession planning,” Bunkers said. “They do not have successors they believe can carry on the success they’ve built.”
It’s part of why he’s such a strong advocate for Young Bankers of Iowa, building the next generation of community bankers, family ties or not.
He also wants members to get more comfortable using the resources already at their disposal. Correspondent bankers, ICBA, and IBA have all become allies in his own career, and he wants more bankers to feel confident asking questions instead of guessing.
“There’s more people that don’t know and are afraid to ask questions and that’s where CBI can act as a peer group to bounce those questions off of,” Bunkers said.
Above all, Bunkers hopes CBI members walk away from his term with practical resources in hand, and a board president just as invested in their success as he’s always been in his own communities.
For Bunkers, those connections are also what he has valued most throughout his career. The relationships he has built with customers, fellow bankers and people across the industry have been one of the most rewarding parts of community banking, and he believes there are still many more relationships to build. Those connections, he says, will be an important part of keeping community banking strong for generations to come.
“I believe I was put here for a reason,” Bunkers said, “and banking has made me a better person to help people.”