The most powerful woman in banking works in Cleveland.
Beth Mooney, chairman and chief executive officer of KeyCorp, topped the latest “The 25 Most Powerful Women In Banking” list put out by American Banker magazine.
(Two other top KeyCorp executives, Maria Coyne and Amy Brady, also made the list.)
“I am grateful to American Banker for recognizing women’s achievements and for this tremendous opportunity,” Mooney said.
Mooney is the first woman to lead one of the 20 largest independent banks in the United States.
She became KeyCorp chief executive in 2011, succeeding Henry Meyer. Her promotion was hailed in the industry as history-making.
She joined KeyCorp in 2006, when she led the company’s 14-state Community Bank division. Prior to joining KeyCorp, Mooney was chief financial officer of AmSouth Bancorp. She previously worked at financial companies including Citicorp Real Estate Inc. and Bank One Corp.
“Our industry has many capable, competent and accomplished women,” Mooney said in November 2010, when KeyCorp announced she was going to become CEO. “I’m proud to be among them and being the one to go into this role, I will carry that mantle with a little extra responsibility to perform well for all of us.”
Mooney was raised in Midland, Mich., where her father worked as a chemist for Dow Chemical Co.
She graduated in 1977 from the University of Texas with a degree in history. In 1983, she got an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
Forbes Magazine in 2011 named her to its list of the “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and Fortune magazine in 2011 and 2012 named her to its list of the top 50 “Most Powerful Women in Business.”
She is a trustee and treasurer of the Musical Arts Association (parent of the Cleveland Orchestra) and is a trustee of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and United Way of Greater Cleveland.
Mooney told Bloomberg News that she was unemployed in 1979 when she walked in unannounced at Republic Bank in Dallas and talked her way into a job. She said in an interview that she cajoled the bank’s head of management training for three hours until he agreed to hire her.
“He did not really see a fit for me,” said Mooney, in a telephone interview. “I just nicely and basically refused to leave until he offered me a job.”
Mooney recalled that Keith Schmidt, who ran Republic’s management training program, gave her a chance because he had never met someone who wanted something so badly.
“I won’t sleep nights if I refuse you this opportunity,” she remembered him saying. “I’m giving you the opportunity to succeed or fail, and it’s not clear to me which it will be.”
Schmidt could have thrown her out but didn’t, she told Bloomberg.
“It was a game-changer for me,” she said.
And now Mooney is named the most powerful woman in U.S. banking.
