Vice president Chase Manhattan Bank, London
Diane R. Easdon, at the age of 36, has a resume that reads like a list of top U.S. banks.
She launched her career in 1979 at Comerica Inc. as a management trainee. Then she worked a year at Mellon Bank Corp., two years at Chemical Banking Corp., two years at BankAmerica Corp., before moving to Chase Manhattan Corp. in 1986, where she is now a vice president.
Throughout, Ms. Easdon has been a cash management specialist. And this year at Chase, she created one of the cash management industry's hottest new products.
Called Chase Liquidity Manager, the product lets corporations do so-called notional pooling of accounts in multiple currencies. These accounts held at Chase's London unit are treated as a single account when interest rates and fees are calculated.
This lets companies maximize interest income and minimize fees without having to consolidate funds into a single currency.
Chase claims to be the first bank to offer such a product. Officials add that Ms. Easdon's brainchild is pulling in new business.
"It made some new customers very happy, and it put us on the map in terms of being on the move," says Susan W. Schoon, senior vice. president in charge of Chase's cash management business.
And Ms. Easdon is moving with the bank. A native of Livonia, Mich. who attended college at Eastern Michigan University in nearby Ypsilanti, Ms. Easdon recently transferred from New York to Chase's London offices for a few years. She says the move has been mind-opening experience.
"I've learned a tremendous amount about foreign exchange and different regulations," she says. "And personally, it's been very expanding as well, to deal with all the new things a different culture brings to the forefront. "
