Welcome Remarks – Day 2

Welcome remarks from American Banker Editor-in-Chief Chana Schoenberger for the second day of the 2023 Most Powerful Women in Banking Conference.

Transcription:

Chana Schoenberger (00:07):

I am so glad to see you all here for the second day of our most powerful Women in Business conference. Very exciting. Day two. So yesterday, I think most of you were here, but we had a fantastic day. We heard from Jenny Johnson. She talked about private credit, the fed's interest rate moves, putting her own stamp on Franklin Templeton. We had a number of really fantastic panels where honorees got up and were extremely real about things. I always love hearing people's origin stories because the number of people you meet in this industry who started as tellers or cashiers or assistant branch managers, it's really amazing because if you go into a branch today, you look at the people behind the plexiglass and you think someday this woman might be the CEO. That's really cool. And then we had Mary Erdoes who gave us her top eight tips, including dress the part.

(00:55)

And clearly you have all done that. You were doing it yesterday, but you're definitely doing it today. We've often thought that we should do fashions of the most powerful women to have a red carpet and take pictures and ask you who you're wearing. And many of you would do extremely well doing that. Just a couple of short housekeeping notes at two 30 today, there is going to be a drill of the national emergency system, and that means that at the same time, while Janet King and I are up on stage talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, every phone in the entire country is going to go off. So just be prepared for it. Take your phone out in advance. It'll be like an amber alert. You can just click it off. But don't be alarmed. It is a test. We know about it. It's going to be fine.

(01:42)

Don't be scared. We are trying something new today. In addition to the wonderful honoree panels that you've grown to know and love, we are trying two new formats. One of them is going to be a round table format. So we asked for feedback after last year's conference and what people told us, what you told us was that you wanted more interaction with the actual honorees. And if you're an honoree, you wanted interaction with other honorees. And then also people wanted more concrete takeaways that they could bring back to their boss and say, this is why you sent me to a women's leadership conference for two days in New York City. So we're doing two things. We're doing an honoree round table format where you're going to get to interact individually with honorees. And then we're also doing workshops for actual skills. We'll be looking at things like negotiation and media presence, stage presence. They're going to be really fantastic. We've never done these before, so bear with us. It could be kind of interesting, but it's always fun to innovate and try new things. And last night, I don't know how many of you were there, I recognized some of our next winners in the room. We had this fantastic gala where we recognized the members of our next cohort. So we have some highlights to show you right now.

Video Presentation (02:58):

When young women begin their careers at banks, it's often difficult for them to imagine the path to reach the top. Our awards for the most powerful women in banking next, recognize women who have been nominated by senior leaders within their companies as being the most likely to one day be a top executive. Many of them began their journey at the very bottom rungs of the company ladder. Now they're all leading groups, managing projects, and contributing to the success of their banks in their communities, and around the country. All of you in the room, you have the opportunity to break that glass ceiling. You have the opportunity to lead that business. You have the opportunity to bring positive impact and be that CEO. Last night, we celebrated their achievement and showcased their potential here in New York City, home of Wall Street and headquarters of many of the largest banks. We came together to toast these rising stars.

Chana Schoenberger (03:59):

So that was a really great night. Everyone. Have a fun day today. And here's our next panel.