10
JULIE
MONACO
HEAD OF GLOBAL
TRANSACTION SERVICES
Julie Monaco made our 2008 Women to Watch
list for the impressive growth strategies she implemented at Citigroup’s North American global
transaction services business. Turns out she
plays defense just as well as she plays offense.
Monaco ran a relentless outreach campaign
late last year to hold onto customers as Citi was
gripped by the financial crisis. She arranged
client conference calls with senior level executives, and had her group calling on
customers daily to reassure them.
“Every time a piece of news
came out, there were talking points
ready for our sales force so they
could get on the phone with clients
and get to work. I spent a lot of
time out on the road meeting directly with clients. It was an all-hands-on-deck” strategy, Monaco
says.
Despite debilitating market
conditions, Monaco’s unit showed
a 31 percent increase in annual revenue and a 55 percent jump in net
income last year. And Citi’s improved firm-wide performance in
the first half of 2009 went a long way toward
restoring customer confidence. That leaves
more time for Monaco to focus on growth
strategies, but it doesn’t mean she has quit
thinking defensively.
With global transaction services, “you have
to be able to do both, because you’re protecting
a huge annuity base… and in order to get huge
growth from it, you have to get innovative.”
Among Monaco’s innovations at Citi: adding
correspondent banking capabilities to the bank
services group, part of a revamping that helped
boost revenue and deposits; and making Citi
the bank of choice to provide global supply-chain management solutions to the restructured North American auto industry.
Monaco also has sought more opportunities
in the public sector, building on her strategy to
service state and local government clients—
which by the end of 2008 were her
unit’s largest contributor to liability
balances. Citi last year implemented
the largest government travel card
contract in history, as the provider
for the Department of Defense’s 1. 2
million cardholders.
Now Monaco wants her public
sector group to strengthen ties
with universities and non-profits,
and to create products and services
related to government stimulus
funds. She also plans to focus on
health care.
“We consciously chose not to fo-
cus on health care last year because
we wanted to wait until the new ad-
ministration came in, to see where
they were taking health care,” Monaco says.
That kind of patience illustrates her style as
a tactician.
“She plays chess, not checkers,” says Kevin
Fitzgerald, managing director of the North
American public sector for Citi’s global transaction services business. “She’s able to see several
moves down a particular path.”
—Heather Landy
Age:
46
Favorite pastimes: Relaxing
with family, scuba diving
Children: One (age 15)
Last book read: My Hope
for Peace
Last movie seen: “The Curi-
ous Case of Benjamin Button”
Charities most active in:
Wounded Warrior Project,
Save the Bay Foundation
One thing on “bucket” list:
Diving in the Red Sea
Top non-business concerns:
Environmental and natural
resource issues
It didn’t take Lynn Pike long to make an impact at
Capital One Financial Corp.
Six months after becoming the president of
Capital One’s bank, Pike said she would like to see
the company make another acquisition to start
bridging “the white space” between far-flung operations along the Gulf Coast and Northeast. “
Honestly, I would say the footprint seems weird” and
hard to manage, she said at the time.
That didn’t jibe with chief executive Richard
Fairbank’s comfort
with Cap One’s footprint. So while deferring to Fairbank’s judgment, Pike showed a
willingness to express
her own opinion.
Her vision was realized when the $171.9
billion-asset McLean,
Va., company swooped
in to buy Maryland’s
Chevy Chase Bank last
December. The move
placed Capital One
among the nation’s 10-
biggest banks by deposits and increased
the size of its branch
network to more than
730 locations.
Pike calls the move
an opportunistic one.
“Rich and I were
equally intrigued by
the value of adding
Chevy Chase,” she
says. “For me, it was a
compelling opportunity
to get a leading bank
in a resilient market
with excellent talent.”
Pike’s reward?
Oversight of Chevy
Chase’s integration
while also making sure that the company’s complex assimilations of Hibernia Bank and North Fork
Bank progress smoothly. The process included a
massive systems integration and launching a new
corporate brand and marketing campaign.
Pike is also responsible for retooling the management structure at Capital One Bank, creating a
system where executives simultaneously manage
markets and business lines. The dual-role system
closely resembles that of Bank of America, where
Pike was president of business banking before
joining Capital One in April 2007.
Banking had been a lifelong pursuit for Pike
since she saw her grandparents get a loan. “It was
a rare opportunity to witness your family getting
the means they needed to make their dreams
come true,” she says. “Banking is a profession that
allows you to have a positive impact and help
change people’s lives for the better.”
That may explain Pike’s positive attitude even
as the struggling U.S. economy and related credit
defaults have not been friendly to her efforts. Capital One’s local banking segment has posted three
straight quarters in the red, though it was a narrow loss in the second quarter. Still, nonperforming assets made up 2. 35 percent of total loans at
midyear, compared to 0.81 percent a year earlier.
Pike says the environment hasn’t changed her
overall view of “good banking” or diminished her
long-term view of the industry. “We have been
prudent in our decision making,” she says.
—Paul Davis
Age:
53
Favorite pastime:
Spending time with friends
and family
Last book read:
Leading Out Loud:
Inspiring Change through Au-
thentic Communications
Last movie seen:
“Slumdog Millionaire”
Charity most active in:
Operation Hope
One thing on “bucket” list:
Working her way through the
Seven Wonders of the World.
Next up: Pyramids of Egypt
Top non-business concern:
Fighting poverty and
empowering inner-city
communities
