ARVADA, Colo.--Sundie Seefried, CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union and founder of Safe Harbor Private Banking, was named a Top 20 Dynamic CEO by The CEO Publication.
Seefried is nationally recognized for her innovation and creativity in establishing a private banking process to legally deposit cash from cannabis businesses into a state chartered credit union. As Seefried recalls, “When so many people have failed ahead of you and so many expect you to be next, your recurrent mindset must be that failure is never an option. That mantra fueled the fire of our success.”
Seefried was determined to find a way to safely bank cash generated by cannabis businesses and to protect the safety of the money supply by meticulously tracking cannabis funds to confirm their legitimacy. That required developing innovative processes and protocols new to the financial services industry. She founded Safe Harbor Private Banking to work side by side with cannabis business clients. As of the end of November 2020, Safe Harbor Private Banking had managed over 500 cannabis banking accounts while processing over $8 billion dollars. Safe Harbor Private Banking has also helped 10 other financial institutions get their own cannabis banking programs up and running.
Linda Head, Chairman of the Board of Partner Colorado Credit Union, describes Seefried as “a visionary who took on the vital mission of providing financial services to the unbanked cannabis industry and succeeded while others failed. Sundie developed the pioneering Safe Harbor program from the ground up. For the first year and a half, she even onboarded every new banking client herself to learn the ins and outs of the cannabis industry. Now a nationally recognized expert on cannabis banking, Sundie is still working to perfect and expand the program to eventually include full service banking programs and lending. That is the kind of leader she is, and we are fortunate to have her at the helm.”
Seefried is also a sought-after speaker and an advocate for development of more female leaders in the banking industry. She continues to provide leadership in the banking industry by exploring ways to expand business banking services to the rapidly growing cannabis industry. The Top 20 Dynamic CEO’s were selected by an independent board who focused on CEO’s who demonstrated innovation, leadership and results that will serve as inspiration to young entrepreneurs.