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V O L . X X V I N O. X X V I I I 22 "e natural choice was to promote from within, and that led to significant growth in women leading depart- ments and having a large C-suite presence at many Maine banks today," he says. But he notes that boards are different given historically long terms for members, leaving few yearly openings and low turnover. "With the retirement of Boomers as employees," Pinkham says, "we are also seeing retirement of board members, and the trend has been to fill recent vacancies with a more diverse population including women." He says it's up to each bank's board to select community leaders and experts in areas such as law and accounting, and that the trend in recent years is toward a younger and more diverse group. Partly for that reason, he sees no need for mandatory gender quotas on bank boards. Joann Bisson, president and CEO of Augusta-based Trademark Federal Credit Union and board chair of the Maine Credit Union League, says the same of credit unions, where women make up more than a third of board direc- tors at 54 institutions. At her own, five out of nine board members are women though she says that wasn't by design, adding: "It was really about the skill sets, and we're fortunate to have strong female leaders interested in serving on the board." Boardroom diversity plus inclusion At Gorham Savings Bank, Katherine Coster is one of three women on the nine-person board of directors she has chaired since 2018. She credits the bank with prizing gender diversity on the board early on, and says that having women in the mix benefits the quality of communication and questioning. "Any time you have different points of view," she says, "it moves the thinking away from groupthink to, 'at's an interesting idea. How can we see things dif- ferently?'" She also notes that it's not enough to have women around the table, but to include them in the conversation, saying, "Diversity doesn't get you any- where without inclusion." Loans & Leases Financial Record-Keeping Payroll Services Profitability Consulting Tax Preparation & Planning Appraisals Estate Planning Beginning Farmer Programs Crop Insurance Nobody finances agriculture like Farm Credit East. Farm Credit East was made in agriculture – built for its unique credit needs and owned by the customers we serve. This explains why no other lender offers more ag financial products, dedicated services or greater expertise. Or, works harder to achieve your goals. We are mission-driven. We prove it every day. OUR BUSINESS IS TO LEND YOU MONEY. OUR MISSION IS TO GROW YOUR SUCCESS. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E TWO MALE BANK EXECS WEIGH IN Right now is an incredible time for women in financial services, as our industry is wonderfully dynamic and ripe with opportunity. — Larry Wold TD Bank Maine Having gender diversity on our board and senior management team is an important component to our ability to attract and hire talented employees from diverse backgrounds. — Curtis Simard Bar Harbor Bank & Trust P H OTO / C O U R T E S Y O F M A I N E C R E D I T U N I O N L E AG U E Joann Bisson F O C U S

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