Three women Charter new course

Vermont Business Magazine, Nov 01, 2003 by Kelley, Kevin

Banking, even in Vermont, is traditionally a man's world - but not at Charter One, where women hold the top three in-state positions.

The members of this unusual triumvirate differ in their backgrounds and in what they experienced during their respective ascents. But they also share a few traits and commitments.

Each says, for example, that she is proud to be working for Charter One, not least because of the Cleveland-based bank's successful efforts to diversify its management structure as well as its clerical workforce.

Deb Borow started her banking career in a clerical position more than 25 years ago and worked her way up to become the head of Charter One's commercial lending operations in New England.

Linda Magoon, responsible for the bank's 13 branches in northern Vermont, worked at Citibank for 16 years, including six in Germany. She joined Charter One in September after moving to Vermont with the assumption that, "We should first choose where to live, and a job would follow."

Michelle Fairbrother worked nine years in the restaurant industry before accepting a position with Charter One in 1999. She now serves as vice president for the bank's southern Vermont region, which includes 13 branches. At 31, Fairbrother is the youngest of the three top managers at Vermont's third-largest bank (behind only Chittenden and Banknorth). Possibly as a result, she does not have the same perspective as do Borow and Magoon in regard to the opportunities available to women.

While in college, Magoon recalls, "I didn't think at all about having a career. I wanted to be a homemaker and have seven children."

In her years at Citibank, she says she encountered "more of a glass ceiling than blatant discrimination, but discrimination definitely was present." To rise through the ranks, Magoon adds, "women have to work harder than men. If there's any flaw, it will be noticed before 'Someone else's."

In the late 1970s, Borow notes, "it was unheard of for women to be in lending." And so when she got involved in that aspect of banking she was initially fearful of meeting rejection from customers and the community.

"But I didn't find that at all," Borow says now. "I that if you're responsive, they don't care who you are."

Fairbrother identifies sexism as "one small part" of why she decided to leave the restaurant business. Her view now is that, "Whoever and wherever you are as a woman, you can accomplish what you want to."

Magoon, however, believes that discrimination against women has not vanished entirely.

"I wouldn't say the situation is radically different than it was 20 years ago. It's improved, certainly, but there are still many places where you'll find discrimination."

The three women also do not entirely agree on the question of whether there is a female style of management.

"Everyone has to find their own style men and women alike," says Fairbrother. "It's all about finding the style that works best for you."

Women's approach to management consists mainly of "working very hard," Borow says. While acknowledging that some women may be more sensitive to employees' emotional needs, she points out that her job has a strongly analytical component.

"You have to know about a lot of different industries" in order to succeed as a commercial lender, Borow says.

"I would probably be considered more nurturing," adds Magoon, noting that on personality tests she scores higher as an "influencer" than as a "controller." Some men have the same test results, she observes. Her own management style, Magoon says, can best be described as "helping people achieve more than they thought they were ever capable of achieving."

The effort to balance family obligations and job responsibilities has been a defining element in both Magoon's and Borow's life. Fairbrother, again, has a different experience, since she is single and does not have children.

Borow says she took six months off from work following the birth of each of her daughters, who are now 18 and 22 years of age.

"It was a constant juggle, but I was fortunate to have a supportive husband," she says.

Magoon more than half-fulfilled her early ambition of having seven children. She has been able to pursue a successful banking career while raising four children because, "I have more energy than anyone I know," Magoon says.

She also attributes the happy outcome to her husband, Art Swanson, who worked mainly in the home during the total of eight years that the family lived in Germany.

"He's the best," Magoon says of her husband. "If I could clone him, every woman would be happy."