Press Releases

The Citizens Business Summit was hosted on September 21, 2022, after a two-year pause due to the pandemic.

Citizens Bank & Trust brought an impressive line-up of speakers whose subject matter was tailored to cater to attendees. The event was hosted in the Grandview Ballroom at the Lake Guntesrville State Park and was a sold-out event.

Lee Rubin was the opening keynote, a former collegiate athlete and HR executive, followed by economist, Dr. Ed Seifried, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Business at Lafayette college in Easton, Pennyslvania. Next up was Kimberly Ford, Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Fiserv and real-time payments expert. Garrison Wynn was the closing keynote and, using comedy, delivered motivation business expertise. 

The day concluded with closing remarks from the bank's President and CEO, Charlie Williams. 

The Citizens Business Summit began in 2016 and it occurs in September of each year. The thought and effort behind the Summit arose from the desire of our institution to be much more than a Bank in the communities we serve …. To be leaders, with a servant-hood corporate agenda that extends much further than simply accepting deposits and making loans. Our Bank provides two significant community events each year. The first is the Citizens Charity Classic that we offer in the spring of each year. Our sole beneficiary is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and in three short years we’ve raised in excess of $290,000 for the FCA’s Northeast Alabama Chapter. The Business Summit seemed to us to be a natural follow-on.

We didn’t host the Summit in 2020 or 2021 due to Covid, but in previous years, we have engaged with roughly 200-250 attendees … business and community leaders, leaders in our educational institutions, along with bank customers and prospects. Our goal has been to provide them with something to take away, that can be helpful in their daily business or professional lives, and in their personal lives as well.