25 Women to Watch: 21-25

21. Rilla Delorier
Chief Marketing and Client Experience Officer, SunTrust Banks

With her keen insights as to how banks should approach things like social media, and with presence and charisma to spare, SunTrust's Rilla Delorier is an emerging voice on industry issues related to marketing. This Harvard MBA also is a tactician. When her company’s biggest competitor on service, Wachovia, got taken over, Delorier smelled opportunity, and invited customers to "Experience the Difference at SunTrust." From Gallup surveys to Forrester studies, the company has been raking in customer-service accolades ever since.

"Exposing my children to my challenges at work, along with how I’m thinking about them, has helped them tackle everyday problems—and provided a way for me to engage with them in meaningful conversation and coaching opportunities."

22. Kelly Mathieson
Managing Director, JPMorgan Chase

Named on three pending patents and appointed to represent her company on a New York Fed task force addressing needed reforms in the tri-party repo market, Kelly Mathieson has been a driving force behind the re-imagination of clearance and collateral management at JPMorgan Chase. She applies some right-brain skills to the company as well, working with the Treasury and Securities Diversity Council to identify and develop potential leaders in the group, and establishing a charitable fund that has raised more than $500,000 for microfinance, in honor of a former colleague.

"Going well beyond tokenism, diversity initiatives create a continuous wellspring of talent."

23. Patricia Husic
President and CEO, Centric Bank

Innovate. Adapt. Reinvent. This is the strategy Patricia Husic has followed at Centric Financial, a $216 million-asset bank in Harrisburg, Pa. She led the investor group that acquired a predecessor bank and established the Centric brand in 2007. Her bankers’ intimate knowledge of the local market has spurred growth. For example, a new location in Hershey, Pa., home to a large medical community, offers a suite of products—from life insurance to payroll accounts to building loans—geared toward doctors and other healthcare professionals. Net income at Centric last year rose 129 percent.

"While prognosticators say, 'When the economy rebounds, we’ll consider a growth plan,' I remind our team that we are the economy."

24. Maria Coyne
EVP, Business Banking Segment Head, KeyBank

Find an organization with "women" and "business" in the title, and chances are Maria Coyne has ties to it. Involved with the Center for Women’s Business Research and the National Association of Women Business Owners, among other groups, she also is the founder of Key4Women, a program for female small-business customers of KeyBank. Key CEO Beth Mooney says that when the company established business banking as its own segment last year, separate from commercial or consumer banking, there was no question in her mind that Coyne—as tireless an advocate for women employees as she is for women customers—was the right person to run it.

"Match your passion with the facts. Often women especially can come off as 'emotional' when in fact they are just passionate, so be sure to speak to the numbers to really get people's interest and buy-in."

25. Shaza Andersen
CEO, WashingtonFirst Bank

As rare it is to find a bank with a female CEO, it's even rarer to find a bank founded by a woman. Shaza Andersen started WashingtonFirst in Reston, Va., in 2004, and has since grown it into a $538 million-asset institution with 10 branches in the metro D.C. market. Despite the sluggish economic environment, 2010 was a record year for the bank, with double-digit growth in assets in deposits.

"Not every decision needs to be made immediately; not every goal needs to be achieved by the end of the day. Taking the time to get to the very best answer is always worth it."

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