Mary-Ammielle Stone, M&T Bank's business banking regional manager in Rochester, New York, has based her team-building leadership style on lessons absorbed from several of her managers at the bank.
They taught her the importance of building rapport through shared enjoyment, said Stone, who joined M&T in 2017. That may come through an event like a holiday dress-up day for branch employees, she said, or a week designated for bankers to share selfies taken out in the community during their free time.
"The number one thing I've learned is: Be yourself. I like to have fun; I like to laugh," she said. "I believe positivity is contagious. Negativity can be as well, but if we start our day with a smile, a genuine connection, whether it's with our teams, our colleagues or our clients, it makes everyone's day just a little bit better; it makes everyone want to work a little bit harder and it drives that community connectivity with the bank."
Before her promotion to regional manager in June, Stone oversaw M&T's Small Business Administration-guaranteed lending across 12 Eastern states. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025, she helped the M&T's SBA loan program grow by 58%, a record for the bank, with $294 million lent to 2,701 small businesses.
To increase the SBA lending volume, she encouraged her team to focus on improving the client experience for borrowers, prospective borrowers and internal clients, including the bank's branch and business banking teams, Stone said.
"We questioned the way we worked, to find small wins in our process," she said. "We had the client at the forefront."
Her team uncovered their wins by tweaking instructions on loan application forms, deploying the bank's technology team to improve the digital client experience, and providing tools and resources to bank teams to help them support their clients, Stone said.
She also emphasized education, including the cross-training bank teams about the SBA program, because most SBA lending comes through branch relationships, she said. Her team also focused on client education: preparing bank clients to receive capital from loans and holding seminars for clients on opening and restructuring businesses and on succession planning.
Stone made a priority of personally visiting district offices across the East Coast to help align the bank's lending and frontline sales teams.
Her current manager at M&T, Tony Delmonte, business banking manager for Western and Central New York, said her ability to relate to others stands out.
"The way she connects with people, she's very easy to talk to," Delmonte said. "She spends a lot of time getting to know people."
As soon as she started in her new role this year, her "endless energy and positive approach" was obvious, he said.
"I was so impressed with how she got in front of her people very quickly and started establishing that relationship," Delmonte said. "That's what makes her a great leader."
