Rob Widdis Photography
For the first 16 years of her banking career, Sandy Pierce kept her background secret from her colleagues. Pierce’s parents owned and operated a bar in Detroit, and she and her nine siblings lived above the bar. She was the only one of her siblings to attend college. While attending Wayne State University, she worked part-time, first as a cashier in the university’s bookstore and then as a teller at the Detroit National Bank.
“I never talked about where I came from or how I grew up because I thought that would hold me back,” she said.
When she graduated with a degree in marketing and a minor in accounting, she applied for a branch manager training position at Detroit National Bank and was turned down.
“The recruiter told me I would never be in a management position because I was too nice,” she recalled. “So I said I wanted to work in marketing until I had a reputation for being able to do more than teller work. And I did.”
While working in marketing at NBD, Pierce noticed two things about bank executives. That’s because they’re all white men, and they’re all commercial financiers. “So I decided I had to become a commercial lender.”
She applied to join the bank’s commercial loan training program but was initially turned down because she did not have a master’s degree. “I told them, just come in and I’ll get it while I’m in the program,” she said. Pearce said she was the only woman in the 55-employee training program, which the bank “reluctantly” allowed her to participate in.
Pierce excelled in the training program and realized he truly loved commercial lending. He said, “I loved supporting start-up and growing companies. It was very rewarding to help companies reach their North Star.”
She rose through the ranks within the bank, becoming only the second woman at NBD to become a senior vice president at the age of 37. That’s when she had an idea to reveal her background. “I realized that my success was because of how I grew, not in spite of it,” she said. “At that moment, I decided that I would tell my story every chance I got. We all have something that defines who you are and what makes you tick.”
Mr. Pearce spent 27 years of his 40-year career at NBD and its successor banks. In 1995, NBD merged with First National Bank of Chicago. First National Bank was acquired three years later and Bank He merged with One.
At the time of the merger, Pierce had just given birth to her third child, Tommy. While she was recuperating, she received a call from her new boss at Bank One. “He said, ‘We’re going to announce your new job tomorrow, and I want you to know that we’re really looking forward to it. , and you’ll be responsible for 8,000 companies’ employees.’ So I said, ‘Can I call you back?’
“So the next morning, right after I gave birth, he called me, so I thought it was natural, but I called him at 5 a.m. and gave him the names of the three people. And he said, ‘This is… What?’ And I said, all these co-workers would do a great job in that job, and I’m not going to take that job. I was really scared, because I I was nervous because I had just had a baby and my daughters were 11 and 14. I knew these banks were going to merge and I could lose my job. I had to make a decision at that moment, and I had enough confidence that I would land somewhere.In the end, I landed there and got an even better job at the same bank. But I didn’t know that at the time.”
In 2004, JPMorgan Chase acquired Bank One. After the merger, Mr. Pierce spent one year at JPMorgan running the bank’s Midwest retail division.
She reported to Charlie Scharf, then CEO of the bank’s personal financial services division. She left in December 2004, saying the bank had grown too big. “I didn’t feel like I had much power in terms of my influence. They didn’t want me to leave, which was great, but I just felt like I didn’t have much influence. I wanted to be able to give,” she explained.
The following month, Pierce joined Charter One Bank in Michigan as president and CEO. Charter One was a division of the Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS went bankrupt in 2008, and four years later Pierce was recruited by a former JPMorgan colleague to join FirstMerit in Michigan as vice chairman and CEO.
In August 2016, Huntington Bank acquired FirstMerit, and Pierce became director of the bank’s private and regional banking division and chairman in Huntington, Michigan. In addition to running the private bank, she was responsible for its insurance agency, auto financing, and community development issues. She also managed Huntington’s chair for her 12-state region.For many years to come, over the next 7 years.
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When Huntington acquired TCF Financial in 2021, Pierce was tasked with growing Huntington’s private banking and wealth management divisions as well as reorganizing the combined bank’s structure. The result is a streamlined organization that combines consumer services, small business, auto financing and asset management into one consumer and regional banking division.
Pearce said that on a typical day, he divides his time between lines of business, revenue segments and regions. “I spent a lot of time with customers, because you build relationships over the years. I went on many calls with customers and was instrumental in all aspects of leading the bank. “I helped negotiate deals where we could do that. Even though I wasn’t the chief executive, the CEO, I was one of the leaders,” she said.
Pierce has been active on multiple boards throughout his career. She is a director of Penske Automotive and American AXA, and also serves as president of the Henry Ford Health Foundation and the Detroit Economic Club. Last January, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed Pierce to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, and she joined Renaissance Venture Capital Management’s advisory board last August. This venture capital firm invests in Michigan businesses and startups.
think back
Looking back at the early days of her career, Pearce said women weren’t as supportive of each other as they are today. “When I was growing up in the banking industry, there were very few women, and very few women really competed, because neither of us wanted to advance. I wanted to advance, too. , I just decided, “I’m never going to play that game. I’m not going to be that person.” But what I see today is that more women in leadership roles I mean, there’s a lot more of them. They’re working together, they’re helping each other out, they’re working well together. It’s not like it was 40 years ago,” she said.
However, Citi’s Jane Fraser, the only female CEO of a major bank, said more work needed to be done to promote women to senior roles. “We’re supporting her as CEO of Citigroup, and we’re very happy for her, but it shouldn’t be the only female CEO. As for the men who are CEOs… The reason we don’t talk about it is because there are a lot of CEOs out there.
“Women not only need a seat at the boardroom table, they need a seat at the CEO table. That’s the work we still have to do. And women help other women get there. There is a need,” she added.
Pierce has said over the years that one of her biggest regrets is not learning early in her career that there is no such thing as work-life balance. “When I gave birth to my daughters, I tried to balance my personal and professional lives, and I always overpromised and under-promised. What that meant was that I “I had dinner with a client, and if I didn’t show up, they would be disappointed and I would have a meltdown.”
By the time she gave birth to her son, she realized that balance was impossible. “I learned how to integrate from a very good friend of mine. She told me to sit down on Sunday, and by then you would know your schedule for the week ahead. “I know I can only fit in 100% of the time. It’s impossible.” “I’ll fit in another 20%, so don’t overpromise. When the kids have something really important to do, I don’t have time for work.” Sometimes you have to say no, and sometimes you have to say no to your kids when work is a priority.”
I’m looking forward to
Pierce, who retired Dec. 22, is confident Huntington will continue to grow in her absence. “I can’t really speak to the competition, but Huntington has a very strong capital base. We have a very strong balance sheet. We’re growing deposits. We’re very excited about technology. We are growing our commercial sector as well as our investments.” We are preparing for contingencies in the Carolinas, and further strengthening our systems in Colorado and Minnesota.
At the same time, we are very careful to ensure that we invest in growth markets as well as traditional markets. So even though the industry is going through a very difficult time right now, I feel very optimistic about Huntington’s future. “Regulatory oversight is as intense and frightening as I can ever remember,” she said.
Pearce plans to remain on the board after his retirement, but has not decided what else he will do. “Fortunately, I’ve had a few offers, so what I’m really thinking about is something to keep me grounded in Michigan, where I was always traveling, but now. I’m really, really taking a breather.”