At Santa Cruz County Bank in Santa Cruz, California, five C-level women lead the business and its 150 employees. The chief executive, financial, marketing, credit and operational officers are collectively in charge of setting corporate vision, establishing policies and creating and implementing long- and short-term strategic initiatives. Under their leadership in the past year, the bank successfully began an asset-based lending division, a treasury management department and a rotational development program designed to recruit talented college graduates.
The team's leader is Krista Snelling, president and bank CEO since March 2021. Mary Anne Carson is chief marketing officer. The bank's chief financial officer is Cecilia Situ, and Shamara van der Voort is chief operations officer. Susan Just, the bank's chief credit officer, left the bank in late August.
In 2022, the team helped the bank achieve:
- Record net earnings.
- Three increases in quarterly cash dividend payments to shareholders.
- A two-for-one stock split.
- A $5 million share repurchase.
The bank is ranked sixth nationally by S&P Global Market Intelligence for banks with less than $3 billion in assets and is in fourth place overall for deposit market share in Santa Cruz County, holding 15% of all deposits in that market.
Its SBA department is one of the top 100 lenders in the U.S. for SBA 7a loan volume. Santa Cruz County Bank employees donated 2,400 hours of volunteer service to more than 200 nonprofit organizations in 2022, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel Readers' Choice Awards named it best bank for the eighth year in a row.
Van der Voort recalls the welcome she got from her teammates as she began her job in October 2021. "As the newly arrived COO, I was immediately immersed in a two-day strategic planning and team-building session with the executive team, who welcomed me with open arms," she said.
"One of my early strategic initiatives with the bank generated from that two-days session [was] to fully integrate a client-first experience throughout the bank's branch operations and organization," she continued.
A unified, companywide team decided on and implemented automated processes to streamline workflow, create a new treasury management team and hire a director of product and digital transformation. The new director, in turn, introduced tech innovations — DocuSign, Teller Capture, Lockbox, ICS, check and ACH positive pay — and also helped roll out a new commercial credit card project.
"The team support I experienced from the moment I came on board is an example of the working culture at the bank, and this support and culture has been carried forward to enhance the client-first experience. As someone new to the team, I was excited to see what we accomplished in a short time and what we continue to accomplish. I see women coming together and transforming the whole structure for optimal results. I give full credit to the men involved, but the majority of the leadership team and the changemakers in this process were women," van der Voort said.
Team Members:
Krista Snelling, President and CEO
Cecilia Situ, EVP Chief Financial Officer
Susan Just, EVP Chief Credit Officer
Shamara van der Voort, EVP Chief Operating Officer
Mary Anne Carson, EVP Chief Marketing Officer
