The Board of Trustees of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado (GSBC) has announced that Timothy Koch, president, will retire following the July 2021 Annual School Session.

“July 2021 will mark the end of an incredible era of community banking education led by Dr. Koch,” said GSBC Chair Mary Kay Bates, president and chief executive officer of Bank Midwest (Iowa). “His extraordinary leadership and vision for banker education has made GSBC what it is today; we are sad to see his time as GSBC’s leader come to an end, but are excited to see what the future holds for the school as well.”

A seven-person search committee has been tasked with finding Koch’s replacement, Bates said. It includes current and former trustees, and representatives from the GSBC faculty and University of Colorado Boulder.

The committee is meeting regularly to identify and vet candidates for the position. It plans to hire a replacement by year-end 2020 allowing for a gradual transition of leadership beginning in 2021.

Koch’s tenure as GSBC president will span 21 years at the time of his retirement, which was shared with his role as the South Carolina Bankers Association Chair of Banking and professor of finance at the University of South Carolina (USC) where he focused his research and writing on bank-performance analysis, risk management, the pricing of fixed-income securities, equities and financial futures, and public finance. Prior to teaching at USC, Koch taught at Baylor University and Texas Tech University. Koch was appointed to the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Community Banking in 2010 that was charged with addressing issues raised during the 2008 financial crisis.

Koch began teaching at graduate banking schools in the 1980s, and prior to taking the role as GSBC president, taught at all six of the U.S. graduate banking schools.

“In the midst of my academic career teaching college students, I was afforded an incredible opportunity to lead GSBC and help develop programming to serve community bankers,” said Koch. “I can say wholeheartedly that the relationships I’ve made with students, alumni, faculty and trustees have been a highlight of my career. It has been an honor to work with community bankers and serve as GSBC president for the past two decades. While community banks face considerable uncertainty over the next few years, their focus on customer and employee relationships will serve them well as they help lead the U.S. back to prosperity.”

Koch, an Iowa native, retired from USC in 2018 and resides in Charleston, S.C. with his wife Susan.