EVP, Director of Retail Banking, Commerce Bank
Patty Kellerhals has had her share of mentors and role models over the course of her 41-year banking career, but few have influenced Commerce Bank’s head of retail banking more than her own mother.
Kellerhals says that her mother, Alice, was the center of her family and her community and was always raising her hand to organize events and take care of neighbors in need.
“She had a take-charge personality and believed there was nothing she couldn’t tackle,” Kellerhals said in an interview published on Commerce’s blog earlier this year. “Her typical response to any challenge was, ‘Well, let’s just get it done.’ ”
Kellerhals inherited that same get-it-done attitude and it is why she has for decades been called upon to lead big, transformational projects at the now $24 billion-asset bank.
Starting back in 1989, when Commerce first introduced personal computers in its branches, it was Kellerhals who was put in charge of teaching employees how to use them. Since then she has overseen launches, and subsequent upgrades, of all of the Kansas City, Mo., company’s online and mobile services for customers.
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In her current role, Kellerhals has been tasked with nothing less than reinventing Commerce’s retail banking model.
The effort was formally launched in 2014 and its overarching goals were to generate new revenue sources, boost customer and employee engagement and use technology to improve efficiency and delivery of services. At the outset of the project, Kellerhals had set a target of generating $18.5 million of additional profit by 2018. She not only hit the target a year ahead of schedule, she exceeded it by nearly $4 million.
Next on Kellerhals’ plate: Developing a new strategy that sets the vision for five major consumer business lines — retail, wealth management, payments, mortgages and small business. She’s also overseeing the replacement of the bank’s 30-year-old core banking system.
Even while managing these various transformational projects, Kellerhals carves out time to engage with younger employees and nurture the next generation of leaders. She recently sponsored a program called Banking on Millennials that allows employees in their 20s and 30s to share with senior leaders the financial challenges they face and offer ideas for how banks could serve them better. She was also the executive sponsor for a newly formed women’s employee resource group whose mission is to create more networking and mentoring opportunities for-up-and-coming female leaders.
