David Korslund ’76, 2011 Leadership and Service Award

David Korslund, Class of 1976, your work with sustainable banking, and your willingness to share your experience with Cornell students, have made lives richer on campus and around the world.

View the award presentation and acceptance speech

Since 2009 you’ve been a senior advisor at the Global Alliance for Banking on Values in The Netherlands, a group of independent banks from around the world that use finance to build a more sustainable future for the environment and unserved people and communities. In 2010, you returned to the Hilltop to speak to students in a workshop about your role at the Alliance and about the importance of sustainable banking. You spoke about using money as a tool for enhancing the quality of life through human, social, cultural and environmental development. You also emphasized the importance of transparency, trust, clarity, and inclusiveness in delivering financial products and services. By sharing your experience, you inspired students to discover ways they, too, can put the values they learn at Cornell into practice.

You are a member of Cornell’s Presidents Society, and have made a planned gift to the college, as well. When living in Chicago, you were an active member of the Cornell College Chicago Club, and hosted dinners at the restaurants you owned.

David, your career is a testament to the value of a liberal arts education. Starting with South Shore Bank after graduation and receiving an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, you’ve been involved in finance for 35 years. You’ve worked at banks around the world, most recently at ABN AMRO Bank in the Netherlands, where you served as executive vice president from 2002 to 2009.

Throughout your career you’ve remained committed to making the world a more humane place and ensuring future generations have a better world in which to live. For all that you have done, David, we award you the Leadership and Service award.