Strategic Planning in 2025: How Bank Leaders Are Turning Data Into Decisions

Strategic planning has never been more complex for community banks. Between margin pressure, liquidity challenges, regulatory expectations, and shifting customer behavior, bank leaders are being asked to chart a course forward in an environment that is anything but predictable.

So how do successful banks approach planning today? They start with clarity. Join us for a panel discussion with three community bank leaders as they share how they are approaching strategic planning in 2025:

• What’s changed in the planning process compared to prior years.
• How they balance growth priorities with risk management and profitability pressures.
• The role data plays in aligning executives, boards, and frontline teams around a common vision.
• Lessons learned (and pitfalls to avoid) in building a strategy that is both ambitious and achievable.

This candid discussion will give you actionable insights straight from the C-Suite — no theory, just real-world perspectives from leaders navigating the same challenges you are

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key shifts in the strategic planning process that are reshaping how community banks set goals and allocate resources in today’s environment.
2. Understand how to use data strategically to align executive leadership, board members, and frontline teams around shared objectives and measurable outcomes.
3. Apply lessons learned from real bank leaders on what works (and what doesn’t) when developing a planning process that is both ambitious and achievable.
4. Avoid common planning pitfalls by learning from peers who are navigating similar challenges in a volatile, high-stakes environment.

Speakers

Mr. Gerard A. Champi assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of Peoples Financial Services Corp. (“Peoples”) and Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company (“Peoples Bank”) effective January 1, 2025. Mr. Champi serves as a director of Peoples Bank. From July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 he served as President and as a director of both Peoples and Peoples Bank.

Prior to the 2024 merger with Peoples and Peoples Bank, Mr. Champi served as President and Chief Executive Officer and was a member of the Board of Directors of FNCB Bancorp, Inc. (“FNCB”) and FNCB Bank since July 1, 2016. Prior to holding this position, Mr. Champi was Chief Operating Officer of FNCB Bank from March 2011 to June 2016. Mr. Champi also served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of FNCB and FNCB Bank and as a director of FNCB Bank from March 2010 until February 2011. Mr. Champi had been with FNCB Bank since 1991 and served in various leadership roles in the Retail, Commercial Sales, and Executive Divisions. He currently serves as a Board member of Leadership Northeast, the Lackawanna Blind Association, the Wilkes-Barre Law & Library Association's Executive Committee's Lay Advisory Committee and is a lifetime member of Pennsylvania State University Alumni Association. Mr. Champi also serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Committee of the Chamber. Jerry is also past President of the Boards of Directors of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Council Boy Scouts of America, the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce, and the Luzerne County Community College Foundation. Mr. Champi's extensive knowledge of FNCB and FNCB Bank, his time as President and Chief Executive Officer and other various leadership positions with FNCB Bank and extensive community and charitable involvement qualify him to serve as a director of Peoples Bank.

Kim Snyder is the Founder and CEO of KlariVis, a nationally recognized data analytics platform designed to help financial institutions transform their data into actionable insights. A former community bank CFO with over 30 years in financial services, Kim brings a rare combination of executive banking expertise and fintech innovation.

She founded KlariVis after experiencing firsthand the challenges banks face in accessing timely, reliable data to drive strategy. Under her leadership, the company has received national acclaim, including American Banker’s Best Places to Work in Fintech in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and top rankings on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2024 and 2025.

Kim has been named to the 2025 Inc. Female Founders 500 List, honored as the 2025 RBTC Entrepreneur of the Year, and recognized among Virginia Business’s 2024 “People to Meet.” She is a passionate advocate for community banking and a trusted voice on the future of financial intelligence.

She began her career at KPMG as a CPA and is a graduate of James Madison University and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

WILLIAM Y. CARROLL, JR. (Billy) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SmartFinancial, Inc. and its subsidiary SmartBank. Carroll, also a founding director of the Bank, has held these positions since its inception in 2007. SmartBank is a full-service regional community bank providing banking, investment, and mortgage services with 42 branches spanning Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. Under Carroll’s leadership the company has been named to the list of Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies and now has approximately $5.5 Billion in assets. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, SmartFinancial, Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SMBK".

Mr. Carroll began his career in public accounting at KraftCPAs PLLC in Nashville. He later joined a community bank in East Tennessee, where he held various management positions including executive vice president and chief financial officer. He also served on the board of directors, the loan committee and the asset liability committee.

Mr. Carroll is a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Tennessee Bankers Association. He is a member of the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Finance Advisory Council and the FIS CEO Strategic Planning Advisory Council. Mr. Carroll previously served on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Nashville Branch, The Sevierville Planning Commission, Sevier County Economic Development Council, and the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont.

Mr. Carroll earned his BS in business administration from the University of Tennessee.