Rachel Weinmann, division president for North Texas at Huntington National Bank, has accumulated years of banking experience, earned responsibility for a major growth market, and developed a leadership style rooted in accountability and transparency.
Weinmann led the Dallas division, which included 12 branches across the DFW metro area and 111 retail and commercial banking employees. Under her leadership, 28 relationship managers produced $452.5 million in new loan production, a 69% increase from the prior year's $267.6 million.
As part of her remit, Weinmann restructured how the bank's relationship managers were trained and developed. The existing loan process unintentionally favored bankers with strong credit backgrounds, while talented employees from retail banking, operations, and marketing backgrounds were spending too much time navigating internal credit processes instead of serving customers and generating business.
As a result, Weinmann hired four experienced portfolio managers as dedicated credit resources, and paired relationship managers with deep credit experience but limited sales experience with three business development officers to strengthen prospecting and business development. Several relationship managers doubled their production over the prior year, productivity increased across the team, and client experience improved. "The growth [in loan production] reflected improved efficiency measures and strategic hiring moves, and greater accountability across the team," she said.
Weinmann's leadership also changed how executive leaders viewed support staffers in commercial banking. The top producers were spending a significant amount of time underwriting their own loan requests. To address this, Weinmann added credit analysts to serve as portfolio managers to take over underwriting, freeing the producers to focus on sourcing new loans.
Within three months, a 69% increase in new loans offset the salaries of the initial two portfolio managers, and the model's success led to approval for two additional portfolio managers.
Weinmann's leadership is also defined by thoughtful risk judgment and the willingness to challenge conventional thinking. For example, she questioned the bank's interpretation of a newly issued regulation because she believed it was being applied more conservatively than required, creating unnecessary exposure to loan defaults and limiting the bank's ability to serve customers. She directed her team to document loans in compliance with the regulation while protecting the bank's position. The recommendation drew pushback, but the bank ultimately amended its procedures to support her approach. "Leadership sometimes requires respectfully challenging conventional thinking," she said.
TJ. Lester Lucy, retired Regional President of Cadence Bank and Weinmann's supervisor for eight years, said that Weinmann stands out as a leader because she delivers both execution and strategy. "She has the exceptional ability to connect authentically with direct reports and executive leadership, while consistently cutting through the noise to get straight to the heart of any issue."
Weismann said that being authentic is part and parcel of who she is. "Fresh out of college and 12 weeks into my banking career I was told that I have 'too much personality for banking.' I like to think that statement inspired me rather than defined me."
