CEO of Large Bank
Her uncommon upbringing put her on the path to running the country’s largest union-owned bank.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
PB was born in the U.S. to Ethiopian parents who were studying in New Mexico. When her parents returned to Africa (her mother served as Ethiopia’s first female senator within the Ethiopian government), PB stayed behind to be raised by family friends in the U.S. military, who took PB with them while that family was relocated to different U.S. Army bases in Germany.
After a government coup in Ethiopia, PB’s parents fled that country to return to the United States. PB immediately joined them as her natural parents moved from place to place within the U.S. while establishing a Christian nonprofit to help Ethiopian refugees.
CHILDHOOD
“Having spent my formative years in Germany, on military bases, among a lot of people from a lot of different places,” said PB, “People can be made to feel inferior by difference. But I was made to feel differences were pretty cool.”
CHALLENGE – RACISM
It wasn’t until PB was 14 and had returned to the U.S. that she experienced racism. “I learned that racism existed, but I didn’t own the inferiority, I didn’t own the prejudice,” PB said. “I learned to lean into differences and be somewhat unconventional.”
EDUCATION
PB was interested in storytelling so when she enrolled in college, she chose to major in journalism.
FIRST JOB / CAREER PATH IS NEVER A BINDING COMMITMENT
Following her college graduation, PB’s first job along her first chosen career path of journalism was at a public radio station, covering small the stories within local small businesses. But PB quickly realized that she would rather engage in business than report on it.
DIFFERENT INTEREST LEADS TO A DIFFERENT CAREER
Changing her career path from relating stories about business to creating her own stories within the business world, PB started as a stockbroker with an investment bank, eventually moving to other investment companies, each time rising in the investment world hierarchy.
PB was Group Executive at Commonwealth Bank of Australia before becoming C.E.O. of a large ($7.7 million in assets) union-owned bank, which PB says was a good fit for her. “I so identify with the bank’s history,” she said. “It was founded by mostly Eastern European textile workers who could not find a bank to lend credit to them. So, they opened a bank – and that’s a pretty bold thing to do.”
The bank’s founders not only wanted to make sure that they provided opportunities for people like them, but also “to make sure that when it invested outside of their needs, it did so in a responsible way,” said PB. “And that has continued throughout the bank’s history.”
The home page of her company’s website lists 10 “Issues We Care About,” including workers’ and immigrants’ rights, racial justice, anti-violence and gun safety. And though many companies are adopting environmental, social and governance benchmarks, known as E.S.G., the bank under PB’s leadership has gone further by successfully petitioning the International Organization for Standardization to create a new merchant category code for gun stores.
While codes exist for many different categories of merchants, there was no code attached to places that sold firearms. PB said that Visa, Mastercard and American Express had already agreed to adopt the code, which PB said could make it easier to flag suspicious activity, such as building up arsenals by buying guns from different stores. PB said her company’s role was not to advocate for gun control or challenge the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution but “to do more to implement the code – and it’s a messy process. We need to try to mitigate the use of our systems for illegal behavior.”
PB was also outspoken about the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision (Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization) which overturned abortion rights at the federal level. PB’s company was one of the first to announce it would cover costs for any employee who needed to travel out of state to receive an abortion where it was still legal. “This is a work-place equity issue,” PB said.
CHALLENGE – DEATH THREATS
The bank’s initiative to help the marketing code system track gun purchases drew attention to the bank and to PB specifically. Not all the attention has been positive. She said she has received death threats.
CAREER SATISFACTION
In 2021, PB said, one third of the bank’s lending portfolio went toward climate – or sustainability – related projects. The bank also prioritizes affordable housing for its real estate investments and works with funds that are geared toward closing the ‘Black wealth gap’.
A retired chief executive of another financial institution, who has known PB for decades, said “What struck me is the ease with which she has kept her authenticity but also could navigate through a whole range of people and personalities and culture. And as she has moved to the top of her industry, she’s the same person I met decades ago. She’s always the same person. As a fellow Black American, (PB) fully appreciates both the promise and the weight of being in this seat. We understand what it means to occupy and excel in a role where the playbook was not written with a person like you in mind in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity.”
But PB has carried that weight lightly. Years ago, on one ‘Casual Friday’ at work, she wore a dashiki-type garment from Ethiopia. “Most Black Americans don’t dress down too much because that affects respect,” said PB. “But I didn’t get that memo. I got a lot of questions. But I’m pretty comfortable with weirdness.”
This career story is based on an article written by Alina Tugend, published within the NY Times on 3/13/23
