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In putting together the 2014 edition of the Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance, we decided to pose a few questions about gender to our honorees. One of those questions became a theme: "Does gender matter in banking?" You'll find some of the responses here, and we invite you to share your thoughts.
September 22 -
The $16.3 billion-asset UMB will pay $182.5 million in stock for the Marquette, which is owned by the Pohlad family. The acquisition, which values Marquette at 160% of its tangible book value, is expected to close in mid-2015.
December 15
Begonya Klumb
CEO, UMB Healthcare Services, UMB Financial
It's easy to see why UMB Financial recently appointed Begonya Klumb to lead its fast-growing healthcare services division: she gets things done.
Since joining the Kansas City, Mo., company in 2003, Klumb has built two divisions — investor relations and mergers and acquisitions — from the ground up and, in the past 20 months, she has spearheaded its largest-ever capital raise and has overseen the largest acquisition in its 103-year history.
She's just as much of a rainmaker outside of the $18 billion-asset UMB. When a high-achieving inner-city charter school needed to expand to meet demand, Klumb stepped in to co-chair its first-ever fundraising campaign. The campaign went on to raise $3.5 million, enough to build a new building with six classrooms that will educate 120 more students each year.
The healthcare services unit at which she became chief executive in June is one of UMB's most important business lines. The unit has more than $1 billion of assets and deposits and manages more than 600,000 health savings accounts and 4.2 million multipurpose benefits cards. It also provides a wide range of payments services to health care providers.
Klumb says that while "greatness has no gender," she recognizes that her 7-year-old son might have an easier time in life than her 9-year-old daughter. It's a big reason why she continues to take on new challenges at UMB and pursue board posts at nonprofits.
"I recall vividly that women made up half of my MBA class at Yale. Some of us went on to Wall Street and investment banking, but when we arrived we found that only about one in 10 managing partners were women," she says.
By sharing her own successes and failures with other women, she hopes to help them make wise choices, not only for themselves, "but also to help smooth the path for my daughter and others who follow."
