One of the most powerful women in New York business, Lynn Pike started as a bank teller. In 2007, Capital One hired her as its chief operating officer. She soon became president of Capital One Bank, overseeing the company’s 14,000 employees at 1,000 branches.
“Banking was a male-dominant industry for a long time,” Pike said. “That’s evolving, though in the ‘C-suite’ not as much.”
CEO, CFO and COO positions are still overwhelmingly held by men.
Ascending to the top of her company has made Pike a “superstar” in her industry, said Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit network of local business leaders and one of the city’s power brokers in her own right.
Pike ranked 11 on this year’s US Banker’s list of 25 most powerful women in banking.
“History takes a long time of rewriting itself,” said Pike, who anticipates more women in top banking positions.
“Listening is a big part of leadership in this day and age. That probably is a skill set that comes more naturally to women,” she said. “You can be great with the numbers, analytically rigorous,” but you need “the pulse of the people, because it’s the people who get the work done in our company.”
