Appetite for Entrepreneurship: CEO & Intrapreneur Jill Castilla
January 28, 2026
11:45 AM - 01:15 PM
Waterfront Plaza (Location will be provided to those who RSVP)
Join us for Appetite for Entrepreneurship with Jill Castilla, hosted by the John F. Scarpa Entrepreneurial Pathway. Jill Castilla is a HPU BSBA alumna, veteran, Chairman, President, and CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond, and founder of ROGER, a digital bank for the military community.
Jill Castilla serves as Chairman, President, and CEO of the 125-year-old Citizens Bank of Edmond. Her leadership spans retail banking, payments, technology, governance, and regulatory engagement. In 2009, she assumed leadership of a struggling community bank and led one of the fastest and most successful turnarounds in banking without the ability to inject additional capital. Since that time, she and the employee-owners have transformed Citizens Bank of Edmond into a resilient, nationally recognized institution honored by American Banker as a Top Team in Banking and Community Banker of the Year.
Castilla has led the development and deployment of cost-effective, customer-centric technologies, including patented self-service cash and coin solutions for small businesses and low-cost interactive teller systems that modernized banking delivery while preserving community connection. During the COVID pandemic, she partnered with Mark Cuban and delivered rapid solutions that connected hundreds of thousands of small businesses and millions of American families to relief and forgiveness tools. Execution timelines were measured in days, not months, during a period of unprecedented uncertainty.
Inspired by her own military service, Castilla founded ROGER, a digital-first military bank built to serve enlisted service members and their families with accessible, no-fee banking wherever duty takes them. ROGER serves as a blueprint for how regulated institutions can deliver digital-first banking without sacrificing discipline or trust and was designed specifically for the enlisted community, which is often underserved by traditional financial institutions.
Despite a national presence, Castilla remains deeply rooted in her community through daily office hours in the bank lobby and her favorite local diner.
Castilla is a nationally recognized voice on banking policy and financial stability. She has testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee and has served on the Federal Reserve’s Federal Advisory Council alongside CEOs of the nation’s largest banks. American Banker has named her among the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” for 12 consecutive years, and in 2025 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Honor. She is highly engaged with Edmond, Oklahoma, and national industry, business, private, and nonprofit organizations. Castilla and her husband, LTC (Ret.) Marcus Castilla, are parents to an Army officer, a Navy officer, and a college student at the University of Mississippi.
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