mass movements as well. We’re not in the business of creating mass movement but we are
tools for the activists who do. So the activists at the Dakota Access Pipeline, they were the
right ones to galvanise the masses around that perfect trifecta of trammeling on Indigenous
rights, threatening a precious water resource and accelerating climate change. But they early
on caught onto the fact that they could inspire mass defection from the banks in financing
the pipeline. So that’s a perfect place for us to plug in. And we do that by offering three things
at the same time. Regulatory advocacy, corporate bank audience and mass movement.Yes, but it never seems like enough to be honest.
We also have a fourth area that’s keeping us
busy. We got really political this year. We’ve
always been pretty mouthy and political but
we have a big legislative agenda that we’re
pursuing. Like, standing up a Consumer
Finance Protection Bureau at the state level and creating a federation of them countrywide,
around working on establishing a public bank in California and establishing a federation of
those, on reforming some charitable tax vehicles that are really a scam, we’re busy there too.
But every once in a while I feel like, “Oh my God, maybe I should leave.” You know, there are
very, very capable bankers here. Do they need me as CEO? No, they don’t. They could run
a good bank without me. Maybe I should hand over to the president and go chain myself to
the White House. I just never feel that we’re doing enough. By the way I usually add Malcolm
X into the procession of funerals but I don’t know if I made that up in my child mind or
if they actually did televise his funeral. It seems odd to me that the early white-biased
broadcast stations would have done so. It’d be awesome if they did. But maybe it was a news
report [laughs].Yeah, definitely. And it is a male
bastion. I’m protected from a
lot of the prejudice by virtue of
working in a bank that we started
as almost a family business.You can just see by the numbers in the C-suite and beyond. You could bet if you do find a
woman CEO they’d had to work within severe constraints. So if they can be outspoken it’s
probably the exception rather than the rule. So I get to say whatever I want. Honestly. And
I try to keep the bank in good regard with its regulator and not scare away all the customers
and stuff. But we do say what we want and try to speak truth to power. I think what is really
awful though is in the banking industry in general it’s not like people are actively against
me. The worst thing is they just ignore us. That’s maybe the most troublesome thing. That
women are just not listened to at all in banking. But that’s why we try to do things to standThe work you do with Beneficial State Bank, with the
Ranch, with NextGen America, does the work you’re doing
feel like this natural expression of who you are and the
journey you’ve been on since that five-year-old girl who
saw the funerals of the great activists of the ’60s?[Laughs]. Actually I’m interested in the challenges you’ve faced as a
white female in the banking system particularly. You’re being such an
advocate for change within that system that is so dominated by, I guess
in North America particularly, an East Coast white male populace. How
have you navigated that? You say maybe you don’t need to be the CEO of
Beneficial but actually the sheer act of being there and being present in
your own power seems like such a catalyst for change as well.
If I’d been at any other bank there’s no way
I would have spent my entire life in it, there’s
just very lousy succession opportunitiesfor women in banking.
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