Children: Two (ages 4 & 6); three stepchildren (ages 17,
21 and 23)
Last book read: The Long Tail
Last movie seen: “Julie & Julia”
Charity most active in: Works closely with several charities
One thing on “bucket” list: Heli-skiing
LINDA VERBA
EXECU TIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
STORE OPERATIONS AND SERVICE PROGRAMS, TD BANCORP
Age:
59
Favorite pastime: Cooking
Children: One (age 19)
Last book read: Category of One
Last movie seen: “Mama Mia”
Charity most active in: VisionSpring, the Christ the
King Foundation, local grammar school foundation
One thing on “bucket” list: Cooking School in Tuscany
Top non-business concern: Leaving the world a better
place for our kids, as our parents did for us
LYNN HEITMAN
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, RETAIL
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS, U.S.
Favorite pastime: Time with family
Children: Two (ages 15 & 17); one
stepson
Last book read: The Glass Castle
Last movie seen: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Charity most active in: Church and School
One thing on “bucket” list: Live in Italy for six months
Top non-business concern: Care and respect for
children and the elderly
The bank could have been on the hook for $25 million, but according to
Fiegel, it was a worthwhile cost of doing business that helped build business
customers’ respect. Plus, she says, “It was the right thing to do.”
Like most banks, Coppermark is not delivering the same returns on assets
and equity it did two or three years ago, when its ROE was approaching 20
percent, but prudent lending and strong deposit growth have helped it maintain ratios that are significantly above those of its peers. Thomas Legan, Coppermark’s president and CEO, gives much of the credit to Fiegel.
“Her management effectiveness is a major factor in Coppermark Bank being a high performance institution year after year,” he says.
—Karen Epper Hoffman
16 ELIZABETH MAYS
Elizabeth Mays does not stop thinking about risk management when she leaves
her office at JPMorgan Chase & Co. each day. Her most recent book, Credit Scoring for Risk Managers, was largely written from a booth at Chuck E. Cheese.
“My son loved to play at Chuck E. Cheese so we’d go there on Sunday afternoons and play games and I’d work on the book,” she says. “We would cap
it off with a pizza every time we were there.”
A senior vice president and the head of consumer risk modeling and analytics at JPMorgan Chase, Mays oversees a staff of 65 risk managers from her
office in Columbus, Ohio. JPMorgan Chase’s consumer portfolio tops $473
billion, making Mays’ role crucial to the bank’s business.
She has written four books on risk management and has worked in both
government and financial services.
Mays began her career in 1986 after she received a Ph.D. in economics
from the University of Cincinnati and moved to Washington without a job.
But soon enough, she was analyzing financial institutions for the Government Accountability Office and later worked as an economist at the Office of
Thrift Supervision. She left government in 1996 to work as a senior economist at Freddie Mac and moved to Citigroup Inc. two years later as the head
of risk modeling. She joined JPMorgan Chase via Bank One seven years ago.
Mays has dedicated most of her 24-year career to studying and developing
models that gauge risk at an institution. But with many financial institutions
caught off guard by the severity of the financial crisis, critics have raised questions about whether any model can capture all the risks a bank faces.
“We should recognize that all models carry the risk of being wrong,” she
says. “But if you’re very careful about the methods that you use to develop
them and if you also make sure that the model developers have lots of interaction with the business people who actually use the models, then you can
lower that model risk.”—Steven Sloan
17 LISA CAPUTO
As a veteran of political campaigns and the Clinton White House, Lisa Caputo is a battle-tested strategist and tactician—useful experience for handling
global marketing and corporate affairs at Citigroup Inc.
At the height of the credit crisis, Caputo kept Citi in touch with employees, customers and regulators. She spearheaded a print advertising campaign
to publicize how the company was regaining its own footing and helping
clients through tough times, and her team produces lengthy quarterly reports
to show how Citi is using funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
“I tend to thrive in crisis situations. You learn how to navigate through
them,” says Caputo, who was communications director for former First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 1994 health care debate and a series of
scandals tied to the Clinton White House.
But while Caputo may have come to Citi prepared for the communications aspect of her work, she is not shy about admitting she needed all the on-the-job training she could get for her other role at the company: running
Women & Co., a membership program designed to put women in command
of their personal finances. When Caputo was recruited to launch it, she put in
late nights and weekends trying to figure out what to do.
“I knew nothing about financial services, I hadn’t run a business before
and I was new to Citi,” Caputo says.
But she shepherded Women & Co. from the idea stage to start-up mode,
and then turned it into a full-fledged business with more than $30 billion in
member balances. “To be given the opportunity to do that was just one of the
most extraordinary opportunities I’ve had in my career,” says Caputo, one of
the few women in the industry to have roles in both the P&L and functional
aspects of the business.
“I’m consistently impressed by Lisa’s energy and determination in her
professional responsibilities, but what’s also been very meaningful to me is
the example she sets for her team as a working mother,” says Shannon Bell,
Citi’s director of corporate media relations and a new mother. “She’s a constant reminder of the importance of striking the right balance between pursuing a challenging career and a satisfying personal life, and keeping the right
perspective about both.”—Heather Landy
18 LINDA VERBA
The cult leader of customer service at TD Bank has an office in the middle of
one of its call centers for a reason.
“It keeps me close to employees and it keeps me close to customers and
feedback,” says Linda Verba, executive vice president and head of retail banking at the $134 billion-asset bank. “I can walk the floor to go to the ladies
room or pick up lunch and get a bead for what’s going on.”
Many days she heads to a bank branch on field excursions that are vital
for learning how to improve service. Once Verba saw a befuddled elderly
woman who thought an ATM gave her the wrong amount of money. Standard procedure required filling out and notarizing forms, but Verba told a
greeter who was trying to help, “We’re talking 20 bucks here. Do you have 20
bucks in your wallet? Just go give it to that lady and apologize.” Now the policy for disputes over low amounts is: “Just give it to the customer,” she says.
Moves like this have built what Dennis DiFlorio, who hired Verba more
than 10 years ago at what was then Commerce Bank, calls a customer service
“cult”—one that has earned J.D. Power and Associates’ award for best customer satisfaction in retail banking in the Mid-Atlantic region for the past
four years. “She is just a ball of energy,” says the retired DiFlorio, who had been
president of Commerce before its sale to TD Bank Financial Group last year.
The bank aims to “wow” customers daily, a goal that became an all-con-suming part of its identity in a way only someone like Verba, whom DiFlorio
affectionately describes as being “on the lunatic fringe,” could ever pull off.
“People will crash through walls for her,” he says.
Ed Clark, president and chief executive officer of TD Bank Financial
Group, says the culture Verba helped build at Commerce melds perfectly into
his company, which in Canada also has a legacy of enthusiastic customer
service. Clark trusts her implicitly to ensure this service continues.
