Kiko Davis, Only Black Female Bank Owner in US, Says Her Superpower Is Courage

September 10, 2020

Finance

Rolling Out interviews Kiko Davis, the only Black woman to own and operate a bank in the United States. Covering her achievements and leadership roles, the interview goes on to discuss the crucial role of Black women in leadership roles, the importance of empathy and awareness of the needs of underrepresented groups, the Black woman history maker she would personally thank, collaboration, and more.

By Porsha Monique

Kiko Davis is the trustee of the Donald Davis Living Trust, the majority stockholder of First Independence Bank, the 10th largest African-American owned bank in the United States and she is the only African American, female bank owner in the United States. She’s also the founder and president of the Don Davis Legacy Foundation, established in 2016 to perpetuate the legacy building efforts and initiatives envisioned and developed by her late husband, Donald Davis. And Davis (Kiko) is also the managing director of Groovesville Productions & Publishing LLC, which controls the Grammy Award winning music catalog of her late husband..

Davis takes pride in her philanthropic efforts and extends her support to great causes and organizations such as the Ronald McDonald House, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and many other organizations that serve the community. She also served for three years on the Lawrence P. Doss Scholarship Foundation as a nonprofit board member.

Rolling out spoke with the bank owner on the importance Black female leaders, who she would like to mentor her and her superpower of courage.

4 Female Leaders Pioneering Fintech and Crypto

Kimberly Hosey

October 11, 2018

Finance

Women have long been making strides in the banking world, and now they're playing pivotal roles in the future of fiance as well. This article from Forbes highlights some female powerhouses in financial technology and cryptocurrency, looking at four women who were already powerhouses in their own rights—and their contributions to this growing industry. Click through to read more!

By Kitty Knowles

Women have secured some of the top European posts in traditional banking: Christine Lagarde heads the International monetary fund, Ana Botin is Executive Chair of Santander Group. Now Europe’s leading women in tech are pioneering startups focused on the future of finance too.

In London, the financial capital of Europe, Anne Boden left a string of top finance positions including Head of EMEA at RBS and Chief Operating Officer at Allied Irish Bank to become the first woman to found a UK bank. Boden has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Chemistry and an MBA. She has raised more than $190 million at the helm of Starling, an app-based bank used by 100,000 British customers. “I understand how to build technology, how to deliver technology and how to manage technologists. That gives you an awful lot of credibility, whether that's with the industry as a whole or with investors,” she tells Forbes.

Despite her background, convincing the industry she knows best hasn’t always been easy. Boden spent much of 2015 explaining to non-believers that, yes, in just a few years we would all want to bank on our phones not just our laptops. If the environments she worked in weren’t 80 percent male they’d be “far more cooperative” in general, the founder adds. “Women have had to work twice as hard for twice as long,” she says.

Photo courtesy: Starling

Women in Banking: Bro Talk Must Go; Wells Fargo's Tolstedt to Retire

opentopic

July 15, 2016

Finance

americanbanker.com - War of words: Bro talk hasn't gotten nearly enough attention as one of the reasons that female leaders are lacking in the financial services industry, writes Sam Polk, a former hedge fund trader, in a New York Times op-ed. Most of the sexism in the workplace happens when women aren't in the room, and it often comes from bosses in a form of male bonding that is not only culturally accepted, but in fact expected - "bro talk." The way women are "casually torn apart in conversation" creates "a force field of disrespect and exclusion" that makes it hard for them to advance, argues Polk, who used to work for Bank of America. Little has changed over the years, despite formal company initiatives like women's leadership summits. What's needed, he says, is much simpler: men speaking up and challenging the norms in everyday situations, no matter how uncomfortable it is to do so. Polk makes an eloquent case that is really worth reading.

Bro's Club? What Bro's Club?: Bank of America has responded to a gender-bias suit filed by managing director Megan Messina, who claims her male supervisor made it clear she wasn't welcome in his bro's club and consistently excluded her from e-mails and meetings with the 10 men he oversaw. B of A said that no bro's club exists and that this inflammatory term was never used by Messina's supervisor or other managers.

Come Back: Barclays is offering a paid internship for once-high-performing midcareer bankers who left the industry for whatever reason, but want to return. The program helps participants brush up on their skills and re-establish their networks. Barbara Byrne, vice chairman of investment banking, says the program helps solve one of the industry's biggest problems: how to recruit the best bankers — particularly women — for an executive career track. "If you come here and you join with us after taking some time off, you're going to stay," says Byrne, who is in our "Most Powerful Women" ranking. "We want people who you can invest in and stay with us, who form relationships."