- dbruton
Interview with Michelle Weisenbach, Market President for KeyBank
Michelle has banking in her DNA. Her father was a banker and she's risen to become the President of KeyBank for the Oregon and Southwest Washington market. In this episode we focus on the future of banking, how KeyBank and Michelle’s industry peers are attracting talent in today's competitive employment market, and her deep commitment to the Portland and Southwest Washington community through serving on numerous non-profit boards.
On recruiting new talent: “I think that individuals joining our companies today are looking for a different kind of experience than they were when [I started]. Today we have to think about how we do things better, how we do things differently, and how we keep people engaged and get really smart individuals into our organizations.”
On her journey to becoming KeyBank president: “I think it’s been a lot about saying ‘yes’ when opportunities presented themselves. Sometimes those ‘yeses’ were to do something that was a little bit of a sidestep off, to do something different. I worked as a corporate trainer for a while, for example. But it’s always been continuing to seek new ways to do different things within the industry.”
On finding time to serve on boards: “The thing that I learned is most important about board service is really finding organizations that fit your passion, whatever that is. And it can be very closely tied to the work that you’re doing, it can be something that you’re personally passionate about, but when you have that love, commitment and passion for whatever that topic is, you are going to feel like it’s a joy to provide the service, and not something that is a demand on your time.”
On the future of banking: “Technology has been a huge driver. Now you can do banking on your phone. You don’t have to go into a bank today in order to be able to do financial transactions. I think the way banks are thinking about their customers is, ‘how does that client want to be engaged, and what are the tools that we use to make that happen where they are, and meet them where they want to be'.”
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