Douglas M. Price
Citizens State Bank
Douglas M. Price is the Chairman and CEO of CSBO Holdings Inc. the owner of Citizens State Bank. Citizens State has banks in Telluride, Ridgway, Ouray, Silverton and Naturita. Price has deep roots in this region with his family moving to Montrose in the 1870’s. Price along with the employees acquired the majority employee owned company in 2016. He began his banking career with FirstBank Holding Company of Colorado where he started as a part time teller in 1977 and became the President and CEO of FirstBank of Colorado the lead bank in the holding company. He was responsible for the evolution and growth of the lending function from $170 million to nearly $4 billion. In 1999 he retired at age 42 to become the founding chairman of Qualistar Early Learning, a non-profit dedicated to the improvement of early learning opportunities for America’s youngest citizens. He was responsible for raising $50,000,000 in private and public monies to create the framework for early learning quality improvement using a research based ratings rubric. Rand Corporation in Santa Monica ran the first of its kind research study to verify the efficacy of the intervention Qualistar had created. He holds a patent on the Quality Ratings Improvement System (QRIS) that is used to create accountability systems that determine federal funding eligibility for state systems supporting early learning settings for children 0-6 throughout the United States. For nearly a decade Price served as CEO of the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting System. While there he received three Emmy awards and the organization received a DuPont Columbia Award for journalistic accomplishment. The DuPont Columbia award is seen as the Pulitzer Prize of broadcast journalism. Price’s term culminated in the conceptualization and majority fundraising for a new, $35,000,000 corporate headquarters in the Arapahoe Square neighborhood in downtown Denver. Price’s greatest joy is his family where he takes great pride in his role as a husband, father and grandfather.
09/21
