12.
Susan Pittman Horton
Chairman, President & CEO
Wheatland Bank, Spokane WA
Years in banking: 5
Rank last year: #13 MPWIB
A love of horses drove Susan Pittman Horton into financial services. "She used to say when she was 6 or 7, 'Someday, I want to be a tax accountant so I can ride horses most of the year and then I just have to work a few months,'" says Rosie Pittman, her mother.
Horton says her mother modeled the drive, tenacity and people skills that friends and colleagues ascribe to her. These traits helped lead Horton to Wheatland Bank's top spot in 1999 after a successful stint as an accounting consultant there.
Her German mother married an American at age 19, and the couple moved to the U.S. Single again by her early 20s, she worked her way from waitress to high-end real estate exec. Mirroring this ethic, Horton started working at age 13, of her own volition, as a coat-checker at the restaurant her mother managed. She waitressed through college and later labored 450 hours a year in unpaid overtime to advance as a CPA.
"She was very exciting to watch grow and then jump into banking and do so well," says former boss Pat McFarland, now a partner at Moss Adams, LLP. "You don't see very many Sue Pittmans come along." Despite her competitive edge, Horton is empathetic. She never puts profits before people, a quality that has only multiplied after giving birth to her own daughter nearly three years ago. "Being a mother has made me a better CEO," she says.
Wheatland Bank CFO Allison Yarnell says Horton expects as much of others as she does of herself, but is understanding and open to criticism. "My predecessor told me when I came to the bank that the golden rule was to always tell your board the bare minimum," Horton says. "My approach is exactly the opposite." Women are nurturers inherently, and as more infiltrate the highest ranks of corporate America, strict hierarchies will erode, she says. Five of Wheatland Bank's seven executive managers are women.
With the $151 million bank at double the assets of when she started, Horton has successfully diversified the once-troubled agricultural outfit. Commercial and retail banking now comprise half the portfolio and Horton is focused on further fostering the sales culture and retail expansion with new branches. Last year, Wheatland Bank reported record earnings of $1.2 million, a 110 percent increase from 2002.
A big board meeting to hash out the next three years looms this fall, but Horton has a more important concern: choosing a pony for her daughter's third birthday.
In Horton's little-girl logic, horses led to banking. There's no telling what career a pony might spark in this third generation.
