Dorothy Savarese has a simple reason why there should be more female banking executives: “More diverse organizations outperform less diverse organizations.”
Ipso facto, she says, “It’s actually in a bank’s best interest to have as diverse of a management team as they possibly can.”
Savarese, 56, the president, CEO and chairwoman of The Cape Cod Five Savings Bank, is a member of an elite group of women bank CEOs. Only 19 of 180 Massachusetts bank CEOs are women, a statistic that reflects the nationwide industry shortage of female bank executives.
“Banking is a field where there are fewer women, particularly in certain positions,” she says. “The statistics do show there is an effect as you go higher to the C-level suite, the numbers of women just aren’t there.”
As Savarese rose higher in banking, she also raised her own consciousness about the glass ceiling in the banking industry.
“I was asked to do a lot of speeches, so I started studying it a lot,” she recalls. She discovered that research Catalyst and other organizations shows that businesses with more diverse management are more successful.
“You’re going to get better results because you have all those divergent points of view,” she explains.
Given the many challenges the banking industry currently faces – regulations changing at a dizzying pace, technology advancing with a never-before-seen speed and consumer habits upending traditional banking – banks can’t afford to rely on the same old ways of doing things, according to Savarese.
“If you have a lot of people coming at something from a different perspective together – as long as you’re open to brainstorming and being creative – you’re going to come up with better solutions,” she says.
Listening To Customers
Brainstorming and creativity are not words you’d normally expect from a banker, but Savarese is not your typical banker.
After a successful career with a national economic consulting organization, she switched to banking, and joined Cape Cod Five in 1993 as a commercial lending officer.
She rose quickly through the ranks, and was named chief operating officer in 2004. A year later, she became president and CEO – the first in the 158-year-old, state-chartered mutual savings bank’s history.
During her eight years as CEO, Cape Cod Five’s assets have increased to $2.3 billion from $1.4 billion, and deposits have nearly doubled to $2 billion from $1.2 billion.
Cape Cod Five currently has 16 branches and two loan production offices throughout Cape Cod, the Islands and in Southeast Massachusetts.
A new branch is planned for early next year in Wareham, and the bank is relocating its West Creek branch on Nantucket to Pleasant Street. Cape Cod Five’s two branches on Nantucket, both opened over the past two years, have been one of Savarese’s biggest successes. The Main Street branch on Nantucket accounted for 28 percent of Cape Cod Five’s total deposit growth last year.
Savarese, who just stepped down as chair of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, is out in the community constantly, listening to customers to develop new banking initiatives.
“My customers are actually telling me how their lives are changing and telling me what their personal challenges are,” she notes.
Women In Banking Conference
While overseeing Cape Cod Five’s growth, Savarese has also fostered the development of women executives within the bank, as well as within the industry.
She serves as a mentor and role model, and encourages women employees to attend professional conferences and networking forums. Cape Cod Five currently has 83 female officers out of a total of 153.
During her recently ended term as chair of the Massachusetts Bankers Association, Savarese oversaw the organization’s first women in banking conference. Initially, the concept drew resistance, even from some women bankers who said they wanted to be known as “good bankers, not women bankers,” Savarese recalls.
While she understands the reluctance to identify oneself as a “woman banker,” Savarese adds, “On the other hand, I recognize the percentage of women in the C-suite in the banking industry in Massachusetts is low, so shouldn’t we address some of the things that would mitigate that?”
One way of doing that, she says, is “helping women recognize some of the decisions or traps that may inhibit their progress and try to empower them to just unleash their own talent.”
Savarese has done just that. In 2012, she was named one of the 25 most powerful women in banking in the country by American Banker magazine.
That’s the kind of success that’s hard to argue with.
Email: noratooher92@gmail.com
