Age:
60
Favorite pastimes: Read-
ing and travel
Children: Five (ages 21,
22, 24, 26 & 28)
Last book read:
The Day of Battle
Charity most active in:
CanCare
One thing on “bucket” list:
Travel the Silk Road
Top non-business
concern: Education
22
The top retail-banking executive at BBVA
Compass was a little frustrated a week after
the Alabama bank took over Guaranty Bank
of Austin, Tex., in an FDIC-arranged match.
No big problems cropped up, but Shelaghmichael Brown, the senior executive vice president and head of retail banking, was thousands of miles away, vacationing in Europe.
“I only wish I was there,” Brown says.
Manolo Sanchez, president and chief executive officer of BBVA Compass, says that’s
typical. “She’s an in-the-trenches kind of
leader. She’s very visible.”
Indeed, Brown helped deliver emergency
supplies to bank employees in Texas who
were hit hard by Hurricane Ike last year. And
when Sanchez and Brown visit bank regions
together, when he’s ready to move from one
branch to the next, Brown often lags behind
to converse with front-line employees about
everything from working conditions to cus-tomer-satisfaction levels.
“The business happens where the customers are,” Brown explains. “The people
who touch customers are the brand. They
are the bank.”
Brown, who joined Compass Bancshares
Inc. in Birmingham as head of consumer finance shortly before Banco Bilbao Vizcaya
Argentaria SA of Spain acquired the com-
pany in late 2007, will have plenty of oppor-
tunities in the months ahead to engage with
new folks out in the field. The deal for Guar-
anty, struck in late August, added $12 billion
of assets and 164 branches in Texas and Cal-
ifornia to the $61 billion of assets and 600
branches that BBVA Compass already had.
The first order of business after the
takeover was calming Guaranty employees
and getting “everybody on the same page,”
Brown says.
BBVA Compass management commit-
tees met with Guaranty executives in Dallas
and Austin on the Friday that the takeover
occurred, and all the Guaranty branch man-
agers were conferenced in on a call with com-
pany executives on Saturday morning.
Then experienced BBVA Compass hands
were dispatched to Guaranty branches to
make sure that questions could be answered
quickly, and branch employees were invited
to meet at regional offices.
Next up is the integration, which is becoming old hat for Brown and her team.
BBVA acquired three Texas banks—Laredo
National Bank, Texas State Bank and State
National Bank—and Brown oversaw their
systems conversions last year..
“It was a good rehearsal,” Brown says.
Much as she relishes immersion in detail
at work, Brown says she tended to stand
back a bit from many of her children’s day-to-day dramas over the years. “You have to
keep everything in perspective as a parent,”
she says.
SHELAGHMICHAEL
BROWN
23
DIANE REYES
GLOBAL HEAD // POWER, ENERGY, CHEMICALS,
METALS AND MINING, GLOBAL TRANSACTION
SERVICES, CITIGROUP
For Diane Reyes, winning a client comes down to establishing trust.
In one instance last year, Reyes was trying to secure a con-
tract with Kuwait’s national oil company. During a sales call in
Kuwait, she had given the potential
client her home telephone and cell
phone numbers, pledging 24/7 ac-
cess. The businessman put her to
the test, calling her on a Sunday af-
ter she returned to the United
States. But perhaps most telling
was a chance meeting between the
two outside of Kuwait, at Dubai In-
ternational Airport in the United
Arab Emirates. In the bustle of the
terminal, Reyes received a tap on
the shoulder. The executive was in
regular attire, rather than a thawb, a
white robe worn by men in Persian
Gulf States. “Do you recognize me?”
he asked. She did, and the moment
was one of many that helped estab-
lish the trust needed to win over
another big client for Citi’s Global
Transaction Services, the arm of the
bank that focuses on servicing
treasury departments.
For Reyes, it also shows visiting
with prospects trumps reaching
them by telephone. “You have to
call on them physically in person,”
she says. “Phone calls don’t work
as well as personal relationships.”
To be sure, Reyes has positioned
her group’s focus on customers.
Favorite pastime:
Children’s sporting events,
such as soccer and tennis
Children:
Four (ages 13, 19, 22 & 22)
Last book read:
The Power of One
Last movie seen:
“Angels & Demons”
Charity most active in:
Roman Catholic Church
One thing on “bucket” list:
Working for a non-profit
Top non-business concern:
Development of young
women worldwide
She spearheaded an aggressive client-calling program for herself
and direct reports, and since she took the reins of the Power, Energy, Chemicals, Metals and Mining group July 2008, she alone
made 100 visits in a year.
Reyes has particularly targeted national oil companies of late.
One key win was a deal with Petróleo Brasileiro in Brazil, second
only in size to Reyes’ deal with the Department of Defense in 2007.
“We have been focusing on this segment,” Reyes says. “During
a time of difficulty, we wanted to place extra attention on it and
make sure we improve the results.”
Reyes has also worked to shore up customer satisfaction. To
increase global presence, she moved successful bankers to other
regions such as the Middle East and Asia. To speed troubleshooting with clients, an executive in GTS was designated as a main
contact within the bank’s operations. Global conference calls
were started, held every two weeks to discuss issues and strate-gize. Reyes also instituted a customer online training portal to
help treasury departments navigate product sets and the intrica-cies of transactions.
“When you get satisfied customers, they tend to give you
more volume in the future,” Reyes says. “It becomes less of a bidding process and more of a natural evolution.”
That was the case with PayPal, a Citi client. Reyes has shown
patience with rollouts of PayPal’s products overseas, willing to
wait out delays and add advice when needed. “She has been extremely genuine and dedicated,” says Jim Magats, director of
global core payments in emerging markets and Asia-Pacific at
PayPal. “Diane has invested in the relationship with PayPal, even
in times when it didn’t have a great short-term payout for
Citibank.”
Reyes is also a huge supporter of women in the workplace,
serving as co-chair of The Women’s Council, a group of 150
women at GTS committed to career advancement and leadership
opportunities. With the group facing budget cuts, Reyes commissioned a survey to show how highly the women value training
programs. Reyes also presented senior management hard numbers that show how the council’s initiatives added to profits.
