By Mary Beth Roach
As chief human resources officer for the Community Financial System, Inc. and someone with 34 years in the banking industry, Maureen Gillan-Myer understands the challenges and the progress in the industry and how corporations must adjust in the next few decades. And she’s been able to hone in on what makes a good leader.
With a degree in finance, Gillan-Myer went into the lending and service side of banking at the start of her career with HSBC. She was then tapped for a position in human resources and although she said she didn’t see her career going in that direction, she realizes now it’s exactly where she should be. She came to Community Bank in October of 2021.
Her responsibilities, she explained, cover all of the aspects of the Community Financial System’s human capital, from attracting and hiring talent across Community’s four businesses; compensation and training programs and performance management.
Community operates four entities with just less than 3,000 employees in 34 states. These entities are One Group Insurance; BPAS, a benefit plan administration business; a wealth management business; and, of course, banking, with 200 branches. She said 73% of Community’s employees are women.
She believes that she has been able to grow her career because “I was somebody who was comfortable getting into a room and talking and giving my opinion and trying to solve a problem — before welcoming differences of opinion became more of a tagline; just listening to other people and what their perspective was and trying to solve problem.”
She added that when she has observed business colleagues attempting to work out problems, it doesn’t matter their gender, race or age, but their knowledge.
“It’s the experience they bring,” she said, adding that while they may have started in another field, they are bringing that know-how with them.
Looking ahead, Gillan-Myer said that consumer-related corporations are having to shift how they operate in order to accommodate societal changes.
“We know more women are coming out of higher education and entering the workforce. We know that the transfer of wealth is going to likely end up in the hands of more women than men, because women are outliving men,” she explained.
The family unit, too, is changing and that will drive businesses to provide more flexibility in their practices.
In looking ahead, too, she is optimistic about women in leadership roles in the financial industry.
While the data alone may not show a healthy percentage of women in these jobs, Gillan-Myer said with her years in the industry and seeing female leaders around her, she believes that those who have behaved more like their male counterparts tend to be less successful because, as she noted, “they tried to be someone they weren’t.”
Her advice is to own who you are and let that be how you grow your career.
