After Seattle banker Laurie Stewart came down from Mount Kilimanjaro, she went on to spend a few days on safari with a relative and then the pair flew to take a cruise around Norway, Stewart’s ancestral homeland. But all adventures come to an end, and she returned to the business of banking at Sound Community Bank. Even after Mount Kilimanjaro, banking, after all, has unique challenges. Beyond her own institution’s affairs, Stewart serves on FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Community Banking and ABA’s America’s Community Bankers Council.

 

 

Laurie Stewart expects to do future fundraising. “But it’s not going to have anything to do with mountains,” she insists. Mount Kilimanjaro got that much out of her system.

Laurie Stewart had already gotten back into the swing of her “day job,” as president and CEO at Sound Community Bank. The $341 million-asset bank’s staff gave her an enthusiastic welcome back.

Stewart had had her first board meeting with her directors, whose request for “stretch goals” had wound up inspiring the banker’s Kilimanjaro trek in the first place.

“They were all shaking their heads,” says Stewart.

Her feet were still a bit sore, but good memories, and challenges met, salved that.

Case in point: Stewart has bested her goal of raising $12,000 for breast cancer research, in making the climb, and actually received some contributions after some bankers saw earlier installments of this series. (Contributions can still be made by going to Stewart’s Climb to Fight Breast Cancer page.)

ABA Banking Journal Executive Editor Steve Cocheo interviewed Stewart on her return to the U.S.

Listen to the 30 minute Podcast

25.57 MB  |  Download MP3  |  Open in popup window  |  Listen now:  

 

 

Read the wrapup magazine story about Stewart’s climb: “ ‘Pole-pole’ up Kilimanjaro”

 

Acknowledgements: ABA Banking Journal thanks Laurie Stewart for her diligent assistance in putting together this series, and for being an all-around good sport about having her climb publicly profiled. The technical side of bringing this series to you via the Web were provided by Andrea Rovira, Tom Morrell, and Dan Clark. Photos were mostly provided by Rebecca Lashley, Stewart’s fellow climber. She was profiled in greater depth in an earlier installment of the series This series was produced and reported by ABA Banking Journal Editor Steve Cocheo

 

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