By Mary Beth Roach
One of Sabrina Webster’s guiding principles is to be her authentic self.
That mindset led the St. Lawrence University graduate into the banking industry, helped her navigate various bank acquisitions throughout her career and led her to her current position of KeyBank’s senior vice president, Central New York commercial banking team.
In this position, Webster oversees KeyBank’s commercial banking line of business with companies whose revenue sizes are $10 million to $1 billion.
Graduating in 1999 as an economics major and education minor, she said she was told at that time that as a woman in finance who didn’t have a 4.0 GPA in economics, it would be difficult to land a job in corporate America. So she decided to pursue teaching. However, there were several months between graduation and the start of the school year and she had bills to pay, so she interviewed for a commercial credit analyst with then-Fleet Bank. She said she didn’t know what that job entailed, but she recalled telling herself, ‘I have an economics degree and I’m going to be my authentic self.’ And she got the job.
After an extensive training program, she began work, underwriting loans for middle market businesses. She said she worked alongside the bank’s relationship managers because “they were going out and meeting with all these business owners and helping them. I really want this career.”
That career, over the next few years, would be marked by changes — whether it was that the banks where she was working were merging or being acquired or better job opportunities were presented.
About 11 years ago, she feared another acquisition at the bank where she had been, so she chose to move to KeyBank, attracted by the products it had that she felt could help clients grow and how it supported women, including its KeyBank4Women Group.
A few years later, she saw an opportunity at KeyBank for the team lead position. She was concerned that a possible deterrent was that she was not a senior banker. But, she recalled, “I have the chops. I’ve got the desire. I’ve got the work ethic. I can handle this.” And she got promoted. That was five years ago. Just last year, Webster’s team was the No. 1 commercial banking team last year throughout the KeyBank region.
“A true leader, whether male or female,” she said, “you lead by example, you lead with value, you lead with integrity. And you have to be your authentic self.”
