Book Christian to Speak
Christian Ruppe brings a rare perspective to community banking: founder, operator, advisor, and investor. He's built and sold a fintech, led digital transformation at top-performing community banks, and has helped dozens of institutions navigate their technology future.
Speaking Topics
The Bank You Wish You Worked For: A Blueprint for Innovation
Most community banks struggle with innovation not because they lack ideas, but because they lack a system. Christian shares the hard-earned lessons from building innovation cultures that survive beyond one person or project—drawing from his experience co-founding and selling a fintech, leading transformation at Colony Bank, and advising dozens of institutions.
This talk weaves together unexpected stories (like how Aaron Burr founded the company that became JP Morgan Chase) with practical frameworks that bank leaders can implement immediately.
Key Takeaways:
How to build an innovation culture that outlasts any single leader or initiative
The framework for evaluating technology investments that actually drive strategic goals (not just vendor promises)
Real stories of what worked—and what spectacularly failed—inside community banks
Ideal For: Bank CEOs, innovation leaders, boards, and leadership teams ready to move from talking about innovation to actually doing it.
Bios
50 Words
Christian Ruppe is Chief Strategy Officer at ImpactFi Advisors and Managing Partner of The Perch Fund. He co-founded and sold the fintech company Monotto, served as Chief Innovation Officer at Colony Bank, and was named to ICBA's 40 Under 40 and American Banker's Digital Innovators of the Year.
100 Words
Christian Ruppe is Chief Strategy Officer at ImpactFi Advisors and Managing Partner of The Perch Fund. He co-founded and sold the fintech company Monotto (acquired by Horicon Bank), served as Chief Innovation Officer at Colony Bank where he led digital transformation and innovation strategy, and was named to the ICBA's 40 Under 40 list and American Banker's Digital Innovators of the Year in 2023. Christian advises community banks on technology strategy and invests in the banktech companies that community banks will actually use. He's known for making complex technology decisions simple and bringing humor and humanity to an industry that often takes itself too seriously.
200 Words
Christian Ruppe is Chief Strategy Officer at ImpactFi Advisors and Managing Partner of The Perch Fund, where he backs early-stage banktech companies solving real problems for community banks.
Christian has been on every side of community banking innovation. He co-founded Monotto in college, winning the Money20/20 startup pitch competition in 2017 before successfully exiting to Horicon Bank. As Chief Innovation Officer at Colony Bank, he built the Banking Solutions team, led digital transformation initiatives, and established Colony as a recognized leader in community bank modernization. During his tenure, Colony's stock outperformed the regional banking index by 6x.
He was named to the ICBA's 40 Under 40 list and American Banker's Digital Innovators of the Year in 2023. Christian now advises dozens of community banks on technology strategy, middleware architecture, AI implementation, and long-term innovation planning.
Christian is known for his ability to translate complex technology decisions into clear strategic frameworks, his storytelling approach to banking innovation, and his commitment to connecting people across the industry. He believes community banks will win the next decade—if they're willing to build the capabilities to compete.
Headshot
Recognition & Experience