It's a man's world? Don't tell Donna Coughey!

"Influencing the Face of Banking: An Executive Women's Forum," presented by RMA and Financial Women International, takes place May 18-20 in New Orleans. Donna Coughey will be part of a plenary panel discussing the issues and challenges facing women executives. The story that follows is testament to her credentials.

In 2000, there were about 3.9 million secretaries and 499,000 bank tellers in the U.S. Many have believed it's almost impossible to advance from such positions, but there are those who know otherwise, having "been there, done that." Donna Coughey, president and CEO of Chester Valley Bancorp Inc., has taken giant steps in an industry hitherto thought to be dominated by men. She's also part of the Philadelphia Business Journal's list of 50 Women of Distinction and a Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year.

Donna Coughey grew up in the 1960s. While there was a lot of noise in the late 1960s about women moving ahead, we know there was a lot more noise than action. (1) Things have changed for the better for women. Even today, however, it's tough to top the story of Donna's career, and the kicker is that she makes it sound like it was all in a day's work.

Mellon Bank hired Donna right out of high school in 1968 as a secretary in deposit accounting at the bank's operations center in Pittsburgh. Those were the days...to feel no nostalgia for. "I used to type account statements--and this is even before word processors, which means carbon paper and the agony of corrections whenever a typo occurred," says Donna. "Mandatory overtime was the rule, with a bunch of us typing and another group stuffing."

After marrying a couple years later, Donna moved to the suburbs and continued working for Mellon as a bank teller. With the arrival of the couple's first child in 1972, Donna did what most women did at the time--she quit to become a stay-at-home mom. A second child was born in 1974. But things changed fairly suddenly when she and her husband separated a year later. "With two children to raise on my own, I took another job as a teller," she says. At the same time, she entered night school in a business management program that would take seven and a half years to complete.

By the time Donna earned her bachelor's degree in 1983, she also had worked her way up through the management levels in the local branches. She then moved into human resources, seemingly a sidestep in a banking career. But she was gaining experience that a few years later would lead to an offer she couldn't refuse. During that time, she remarried. Accompanying her new husband in a job move to Philadelphia, Donna continued as an HR generalist in the new Mellon/Girard Bank merger. She'd been a secretary, a bank teller, and part of an HR staff, and she was ready for the next opportunity, whatever it might be.

"In 1985, I was accepted into Mellon's formal credit program, which at the time ran 18 months to two years," she recalls. While she was working toward a position as a middle-market lender, she reentered the night-school fray at Villanova University to capture an MBA. Having completed the credit program, Donna became a middle-market team leader for the counties surrounding Philadelphia. Then came a telephone call in the mid-1990s.

"Mellon knew that I now had a combination of retail, HR, and lending experience, as well as a touch of operations experience," Donna says. "Someone I'd worked with called me one evening, asking if I wanted to be chairman and CEO of Mellon Bank (Delaware). They wanted the bank to focus on a commercial lending strategy and felt I had the best qualifications to lead it."

Asked if she wasn't just a tad nervous about this new responsibility, Donna sounds surprised. "No, not at all," she says, "although I did get a little tense when my boss, the head of retail banking, who was t bring me up to speed during my two-week transition period, became ill." On her own and not knowing some of the nuances of the deposit world, Donna experienced a moment of terror in which she thought she'd lost a third of the deposits. "Welcome to the cycle of retail again," Donna says. "There's lots of money in the accounts at pay day, then a few days later everyone writes checks and the balance plummets. After years in commercial lending, I just hadn't thought about that."

The Delaware market was called provincial, but Donna found it to be a wonderful place to live and work. "To become more involved in the community, I joined one organization after another," she says. At one time, she was a member of 12 boards of directors. "This was a seven-day-a-week job," she recalls. "A good deal of work was done very early in the morning, late at night, or on weekends." But at this point her children were grown and on their own.

"I found it exciting and challenging," she says. "I've never been afraid to turn away completely from what I was doing to move into something brand new. I figured the worst that could happen is that I'd have to ask for help."

After Donna had 27 years with Mellon, the bank made a strategic decision to move away from retail and commercial lending and to focus more on wealthy clients. "Mellon was no longer investing in the areas of the business that I had grown most experienced in and comfortable with," she says. Coincidentally, Donna's bank was working with a consultant who knew her from two boards they both served on. He called to set up a meeting.

When he asked to talk, I figured it was about one of the nonprofits we were working with. Instead, he says, 'There's this bank in Chester County [Pennsylvania] that would fit you like a glove.' I met with four directors of the bank and found them to be wonderful, delightful, true business people. Over the next few weeks, I met with every board member. I was one of 24 people interested in the position of president/CEO."

For the past 20 years, Chester Valley Bancorp and its sole bank, First Financial Bank, had been under the leadership of Ellen Ann Roberts, whose father had founded the company. The board wanted to take the bank to the next level of commercial lending. They also wanted to expand fee-income-based activities. And they were looking for someone with a strong background in human resources. "There was just a fit," Donna says.

In the two years that Donna has led Chester Valley Bancorp, First Financial Bank has shrunk its residential mortgages and CDs and replaced them with commercial loans and core deposits. "In 1996, we had 63% of our portfolio in mortgages," says Donna.

"Today that's below 32%. In contrast, commercial loans, which were only 3% of total loans in 1996, are now above 19%. And our commercial real estate portfolio grew from 10% to 19%." Building noninterest income is another major initiative of the bank.

The bank's largest issue, as is true for many banks, is interest rates. "To counter the pressure on margins, we are watching our expenses, putting floors on our loans, and letting CD and mortgage run-off occur," she says. Another issue to contend with is the huge advertising dollars spent by big banks. "A community bank must be able to understand its strengths and what it can deliver to the customer," she says. "For the past 10 to 15 years, I've been hearing about the death of the community bank. But there are certain things customers can never get from a big bank." Citing just one example, Donna tells of a business customer who makes a deposit the same time every Friday afternoon. One Friday, the customer didn't come in, and a teller called to find out if everything was all right. "I completely forgot," said the relieved customer. "I'll be right over."

Customers and bankers alike may not dream of calling the president and CEO or a board member. Donna, who has a listed number and often answers her own telephone, says that while there is a chain of command, lenders or branch managers can feel free to call her directly when the situation warrants it. "A lender may feel a customer needs an immediate decision on a loan outside his or her signing authority and, for whatever reason, cannot make contact with the appropriate supervisor. The lender will just keep calling up the chain until the need is met, and sometimes I'm the one who is contacted. The lender will give me information on the length of the relationship and account history. And I can give the lender a decision."

In addition to its board of directors, First Financial Bank has 60-plus advisory board members, all of whom remain actively involved. "Every branch has a group that meets quarterly," she says. "Our advisory board members are 'movers and shakers' who live and work near that branch. They are paid with Chester Valley stock and are expected to deliver referrals." Donna acknowledges that this is the first time she has seen such a group work well. "It takes a lot of follow-up and time spent working with them," she says. "In addition to the quarterly meetings, we have two or three people assigned to each group to notify them when anything comes up. We make sure they receive bank press releases before the media does. They are the first to hear about any bank specials we may be running, and they are kept informed of what happens with leads.

"Most bankers would tell you the kick of being with a community bank is the ability to meet with clients, understand their needs, and deliver a product without any hassles or fighting between departments. Big banks have silos--there are power struggles, and egos get in the way of progress. Bankers grow frustrated trying to meet customer needs. It's very difficult to work in a large organization without having silos form, and once the institution becomes very large, it's much harder to control. I can still react much faster than any large bank can."

Donna is quite proud of her bank and feels it has a great story to tell. "Our stock has performed very well compared to the S&P 500 Index," she says. "Since our IPO in 1987, we have a compound annual growth rate of about 16%. For that same period, the S&P 500 Index has a compound annual growth of only about 10.9%. So we're about 47% higher than the S&P Earnings-per-share was $1.28 in 2002, compared with $0.65 in 1996. Dividends increased from $0.15 in 1996 to $0.40 in 2002. And our capital position, compared to the FDIC's national average of all banks, far exceeds in all categories--core, tier one, and risk based."

When asked for her secrets to success, Donna again sounds surprised that anyone would consider her situation unusual. But as other successful women interviewed for The RMA Journal have done, Donna encourages everyone just entering the organization to stretch and do things no one else wants to do. "Even if it's just some menial task for a supervisor, you will be seen as someone who can get something done," Donna says. "It will be recognized, especially in a smaller organization, where such people are much more visible."

She admits there were points in her life when she couldn't take that next opportunity because of family constraints. And she credits her second husband with her ability to succeed. "He's always been laid back and encouraging," she says. "If you have someone who is your champion, you're more likely to try new things. And to this day he has remained my champion."

In addition, Donna has never been aware of any gender bias in her career. "Middle-market lending was probably the most male-oriented field I'd ever been in," she says, "but I never felt excluded or unable to reach what I wanted. It was never who you were as much as what you were able to deliver." And how does she remain visible within a male-dominated environment at a height of five-foot two? "I'm like a dog that keeps grabbing at the ankles," she answers.

Success lies in not being afraid to tackle anything new, Donna believes. "Especially in large banks, there often are numerous postings of opportunities," she adds. Of her position as president and CEO, Donna acknowledges that "it's long hours and a lot of different worries. But if you have assembled a great team and adopt the attitude of 'How can we get around this?' you'll be all right."

Contact Foster at [email protected]

Notes

(1.) I can sum up the prevailing attitude of my own relatively enlightened town in the Northeast by saying that it wasn't my bachelor's and master's degrees, professional career, and civic work that literally made headlines in the local newspaper: It was "Beverly Foster Weds Dentist."

[C] 2003 by RMA. Foster is editor of The RMA Journal.

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