Cynthia L. Blankenship

Cynthia L. Blankenship is vice chairman, corporate president and chief financial officer of Bank of the West, Grapevine, Texas. Bank of the West specializes in small business lending and has eight locations in Texas. She is currently a member of the board of directors for the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). She is a past chairman of the ICBA and is the immediate past chair of the ICBA services network. Blankenship has also served on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Community Banking Advisory Board. She was appointed Dean for Bankers and chaired the Southwestern School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. Blankenship served as chair of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT) in 2002 and served as chair of the IBAT Education Foundation which raised more than $1 million for financial literacy. In 2004, U.S. Banker magazine named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Banking. Blankenship has served her community through the Colleyville Women’s Club, the Community Bankers Education Foundation, the Bear Creek Community Development Project, and Dallas Summer Musicals. She is a member of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce and a recipient of the 1999 Arts Education Award and the 2004 Colleyville Women’s Club Novus Award. Blankenship currently sits on the board of directors of the Grapevine, Texas, Convention and Visitors Bureau. In November 2010, she was named as one of the 2010 Great Women of Texas.