Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | February 10, 2025 | wbjournal.com Central Mass. female banking leaders leverage their determination, leaning on each other to excel in the field of financial services MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer I n 2024, the United States cele- brated the 50th anniversary of a woman's ability to obtain a bank account without her father's or husband's co-signature. Yes, you read that correctly. In 1974, the U.S. passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, making it illegal for creditors to discriminate based on sex, race, or religion, meaning women could finally independently open their own bank account and have credit cards in their own names. Since then, women's advancement in senior banking roles has moved slowly. While the majority of U.S. bank employees are women, 7.5% of banks have women CEOs, according to the ABA Banking Journal of the American Bankers Association. In Central Massachusetts, six of the region's 32 largest banks are led by wom- en: Dana Neshe of Natick-based Mid- dlesex Savings Bank, Kristin Carvalho of IMAGE | ADOBE STOCK.COM F O C U S W O M E N I N L E A D E R S H I P GOOD with money Framingham-based MutualOne Bank, Mary Dean of Clinton Savings Bank, Rosemary Picard of Southbridge-based Savers Bank, Mary McGovern of Ware- based Country Bank, and Kathleen Marcum of Millbury National Bank. For these leaders, navigating the male- and white-dominated field of banking means using prejudice to fuel their efforts to succeed and embracing the collaborative mindset that so oen makes women exceptional leaders. Road to the top " When I started way back when, all you saw around the table were men," said McGovern, Country Bank's president and CEO. McGovern began her banking career in 1986 as an audit controller at Fidelity Investments. She had majored in math in college because she found it interesting and, truthfully, the range of professional jobs available to women was limited. "My mother was a nurse. My father was a carpenter. I didn't know what careers were out there," she said. Even still, she rose through the bank- ing ranks, entering the C-suite in 1999 at Danversbank and making her way to Country Bank in 2011. McGovern was named Country Bank's first female president in January 2024, and in August she became its first female CEO in the institution's 174-year history. Neshe, chair, president, and CEO of Middlesex Savings Bank, and Carvalho, president and CEO of MutualOne Bank, began their banking careers as tellers at their local banks. Both are the first wom- en to hold their current positions within their respective institutions. Neshe has spent 30 years out of her 35-year career at Middlesex. She joined in 1995 as an assistant compliance officer and was named CEO last year. Carvalho has worked at a number of Massachusetts-based banks throughout her career and spent the past 15 at the presidential and CEO level. "is has been a long journey for me, not just me, other women at the presidency level," said Carvalho. "And it is a long, painful journey filled with chal- lenges, filled with disappointments, filled with ignorance." Overcoming barriers To stay empowered throughout her journey to the top, Carvalho has worked hard, stayed focused, and has done as much professional training as she could, she said. Working to differentiate herself from peers regardless of sex has in part led her to earn two master's degrees and a doctorate in business administration. "We all know what the issues are. e question is: 'What can you do about it?'" said Carvalho. McGovern was used to being the only woman in the room early in her career, a circumstance she simply became used to out of necessity. To make lemonade, McGovern used those experiences as a sort of training ground for the barriers she would eventually break in her career. As women slowly infiltrated banking leadership, she began to see those possi- bilities for herself come into focus. "at was how my perspective evolved, I would say over my career, 'Well, why couldn't I be that?'" she said. When Neshe joined Middlesex Savings, women already held senior lead- ership positions at the bank, which was fortunate for her. Looking back, Neshe doesn't feel as though she had sex-spe- cific barriers to overcome within the institution, a rarity for many women in the banking world. In fact, 86 women in financial services are promoted to manager for every 100 of their male counterparts, according to a 2022 Women in the Workplace report from New York-based consulting firm McKinsey & Co. At the same time, women represent the majority of the entry-level banking workforce at 53% while making up fewer than one third of senior vice president and C-suite positions. Discrepancies are even greater when specifically focusing on women of color, who constitute about one in four entry-level employees and 20% of C-suite roles. Rising female leadership "You know, you can name the women that run financial institutions in Massa- Mary McGovern, president and CEO of Country Bank in Ware

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