Clampitt to chair Future Leaders Division for Indiana Bankers Association

Quite early in his career in banking, Michael Clampitt saw the need for educational and networking opportunities for young bankers.

The Putnam County native and loan officer at the North Salem State Bank Greencastle East branch said he would go to banking events and feel like a bit of an outsider.

“I was brand new and I would go to banking functions and all the presidents knew each other and the CEOs, and they’d huddle up,” Clampitt, who started with NSSB in 2008, said. “We young people would go to these conferences and we wouldn’t know anyone.”

Through this, Clampitt quickly learned “you build up your own circle, your own relationships.”

“I just wanted to build up a network of people my age,” he said.

Fortunately, in that same year, the Indiana Bankers Association saw fit to revamp its Future Leadership Division and make that investment in young people part of its strategic plan.

“The (IBA) board of directors said, ‘We need to focus on FLD,’” Clampitt said. “They had an aging population of bank presidents. They were Baby Boomers, and they needed to find replacements. They needed some kind of program to build up these future leaders.”

Fast forward 16 years, and Clampitt, now senior vice president of commercial lending for NSSB, recently became the president of the FLD Advisory Board for the IBA.

“I’ve been on the board for seven years now,” Clampitt said. “They elected me vice president last year, which transitions immediately into president the next year.”

Envisioned as a platform to support the next generation of Indiana bankers, the mission of the FLD is to connect banking professionals within the IBA membership by providing education, networking and volunteer opportunities in order to develop and inspire leaders that will advocate and sustain the future of Indiana’s banking industry.

“I’m super passionate about FLD because if you get into banking, your career starts in FLD,” Clampitt said. “If you think that you’re going to be a lifelong banker, your first stop has to be in FLD. It provides you training, it provides you conferences and networking opportunities.”

Among these opportunities are the annual leadership conference, a coffee club, a day at the Statehouse, the Mega Networking Reception, networking lunches and FLD spotlight opportunities.

In 16 years, Clampitt has seen such opportunities pay dividends in his own career and those of other bank officers around the state.

“I’ve already been there long enough that there are people who have already been presidents of their banks,” Clampitt said before adding, “I’m not saying I’ll ever be president of North Salem State Bank.”

That position belongs to Matt Howrey, just five years Clampitt’s senior and NSSB president for almost 14 years. Additionally, Howrey is the first vice chairman of the IBA board, meaning he will be chairman in 2025.

“We are very proud of Michael,” Howrey said. “His passion for our community, and community banking specifically, started more than 16 years ago with NSSB. The IBA offers an extensive variety of educational and leadership opportunities, and Michael will do his best in his new role to help develop the next generation of banking leaders in the Hoosier state.”

It’s all part of the changing of the guard that happens naturally in business or any other endeavor. The idea is for FLD to smooth the transition.

“When I was a young, young commercial lender, all the guys were in their 30s and 40s,” Clampitt, now 40 himself, said. “Now I’m one of the older ones and there’s a whole other group.”

The Roachdale native graduated from North Putnam in 2003 and Indiana State in 2007. While his business degree may have gone a long way in preparing him for his career, he knows he still had a lot to learn back in July 2008. For that reason, he’s excited by a development within IBA in the last several years.

Partnering with IBA, Purdue University Northwest began offering a banking concentration in 2019, which grew into a banking minor. Ball State University offers a similar program.

Clampitt is passionate about seeing this opportunity expanded to other universities.

“How wonderful would it be if you could go to college and get this training? You graduate college and there is a ton more to learn about banking,” Clampitt said. “If you could walk in the door having bank-specific training, that would be great. I would like to see us work together with the Next-Gen group for college.”

At this point, FLD provides some of this training to those already in the industry, meaning senior loan officers don’t have to spend too much time educating their younger colleagues on the finer points of the industry.

Besides this, Clampitt hopes to see the Future Leadership Division do what it already does well in terms of education and networking opportunities for the 626 Hoosier bankers who are part of the program.

“The main thing is building the network of the bankers that you’re going to be in business with for years to come,” he said.

Clampitt is married to Lauren, a special education teacher for South Putnam, and has two sons: Gavin, 6, and Cooper, 4.