From first-timers to banking experts: How three execs got their start

Nandita Bakhshi had very little knowledge about the banking world when she immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago.

Accompanying her husband in pursuit of his Ph.D., and with her own master's degree in international relations and history already completed, Bakhshi decided to seek out a job at a local shopping mall when she came across a Northeast Savings branch. She applied for a teller position and was sent to Schenectady, New York, for an interview with the bank's human resources department, but she was ultimately turned down for lack of experience.

The branch manager she met with hired her anyway after the original candidate was unable to complete the required tasks for the position and gave Bakhshi the opportunity she needed to dive into the world of banking. She eventually became the chief executive of Bank of the West, a position she held from 2016 to 2023, and is now a special advisor and board member for BMO Financial Group. 

"It took me a while to find myself and say it's OK to bring my real self to work. … Once I was in a position that I felt comfortable in doing so, I asked my colleagues to also bring their authentic selves to work, too," Bakhshi said.

Under Bakhshi's tenure as CEO, Bank of the West set earnings records and launched a program called Digital Doors in partnership with Mastercard to help small-business owners develop an online presence. The bank was purchased by BMO Harris in December 2021, and the deal closed earlier this year.

Bakhshi on Monday announced that she's planning to retire soon after a long career in which she oversaw teams at Washington Mutual, TD Bank, Bank of America and many other companies.

"Leaders need to prioritize people, culture, values and purpose, just as much as they prioritize efficiency," Bakhshi said.

Overseeing all operations of the Michigan unit of Huntington National Bank as its chairman and director of private and regional banking in the state is a sizable task. But Sandy Pierce was well prepared by the path she took to get to this role.

The youngest of 10 children growing up above a bar her parents owned, Pierce was also the first among her siblings to attend college. While enrolled at Wayne State University in Detroit, she became a teller at the National Bank of Detroit. 

Pierce was eager to advance by joining the branch manager training program upon graduating. When a recruiter told her she was "too nice to ever make it in management," she made a lateral move into NBD's marketing department — a decision that placed her on a better path to leadership.

As Pierce worked her way up the ranks, she was careful to never divulge any details of her personal life for fear that her education and upbringing wouldn't measure up to those of her colleagues. 

"I never lied, but I never talked about it because they went to more elite schools and they grew up with a more privileged background than I did," Pierce said. "I never told them where I grew up and I never told them my story."

"It wasn't until I was 37, as the second senior vice president for that same bank, that I realized [my success] was because of how I grew up, not despite it," Pierce said.

Pierce also needed to be open with her mentors about how her experiences could guide her career growth — and how her own path would likely differ from theirs. 

"I've only had all male bosses across my career in banking, and until 10 years ago, they thought what drove them was the same as what drove me. … So I finally had to tell them what my priorities are so you can help me navigate my career," Pierce said. "Understand what your priorities are and understand that those will change as life goes on."

Kate Danella was pursuing a Ph.D. in Europe when she got a sobering call that her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

While she was caring for him, he gave her three tenets to live by: "If you marry someone, marry for character. Work as hard as you can, and when you feel like you've worked your hardest, keep working harder. The last one, go work in banking or finance for two years."

Danella wrapped up her dissertation after his death a month later and moved to California, where she began working for the Los Angeles-based Capital Group as part of the firm's associate program, according to her LinkedIn profile. But she was eager for the two years to end, as she had a loftier goal of making the world a better place. 

"Two years passed, then two more years passed, then 10. Now, 22 years later, I realized that I could make the world a better place by helping finance an entrepreneur's dream, by helping families save for their kids' education and by fulfilling my promise to my father," Danella said.

In her current role as senior executive vice president and head of the consumer banking group at Regions Bank, Danella works to change the perception of what a leader looks like by being more approachable and, in turn, building an element of trust with employees across the organization.

"I want to be a leader where someone can look at me and say, 'I feel like I can [make a mistake] and not be afraid of losing my job,' as well as, 'I can let her know that something's going great and we need to do more of it or something is going wrong and she will try to fix it,'" Danella said.