Just three months after Hope Dmuchowski was hired as chief financial officer at First Horizon Corp., the Memphis bank announced that it was being acquired by TD Bank Group in Canada. Dmuchowski spent more than a year waiting for the deal to go through only to have the merger scuttled by regulators in May, sending her back to square one.
"It's been a very unique 18 months to get to be a CFO for the first time and get a seat at the table, especially as a woman. There are only a few of us," Dmuchowski said. "But to have that somewhat taken away with the merger overhaul — and then having it drop back in and to get the job I applied for 18 months ago — it's been really exciting."
The chief financial officer position in banking is one of the least-occupied C-suite roles held by women. Dmuchowski is the only female CFO of a large or mid-cap U.S. bank. When she joined First Horizon in late 2021 from Truist, women made up 60% of the executive management team.
"Having a female executive team and a group of peers that actually support you, you can't replicate that," she said. "Not to take away my male peers, but my female peers have been my lifeline these last 18 months. It's just such a different environment, so supportive, so kind."
Data shows that there are more women in banking than ever before, but the number of men in management positions increases at every level up the rung of the corporate ladder, while the number of women decreases to the point where "very few women ultimately make it to the C-suite," she said. "Five to 10% of women make it there compared to their male counterparts."
Dmuchowski took an unusual route to banking. Banks were a frequent presence in her life growing up with a single mother and two siblings. She recalled going with her mother to an ATM and paying an overdraft fee, and also going with her when she applied for a car loan.
"I've seen how banking helps individuals," she said. "Banking is the one thing that everybody in the U.S. needs and you're helping people, whether it's to generate wealth, or helping someone buy their first home. It's such a meaningful way to give back and be a part of people's lives in a positive way."
In 1999, Hurricane Floyd flooded the small town of Bound Brook, New Jersey, where Dmuchowski grew up. A college student at the time, she sprang into action to help the town's residents cope with the flooding.
"The water came up to the second floor windows of people's houses," she said. "I woke up and saw that it had flooded overnight unexpectedly, so I went and worked at the high school and did whatever needed to be done."
Several Red Cross workers showed up the next day and one of them, who worked at Deutsche Bank, asked who was in charge. He had observed Dmuchowski throughout the day helping lead the recovery efforts and offered her a job on the spot – which she initially turned down.
"He said I had unique leadership abilities and offered me $25 an hour," she recalled. "I was working four jobs, putting myself through college, commuting an hour each way from home in order to be able to afford to go to college, and so I [took the job] and went to New York City."
Dmuchowski spent four years in Deutsche Bank's leadership development program and then worked as a business manager in equity and global markets research. She then joined the former BB&T as a financial reporting manager, working her way up over the next 12 years to become CFO and group director for the bank's business and corporate divisions. After the 2019 merger between BB&T and SunTrust, Dmuchowski spent another two years at Truist Financial Corp., where she was head of financial planning and analysis, before joining First Horizon in late 2021.
Few banks have had quite the same confluence of factors going on this year as First Horizon. The bank was thrown into crisis mode on March 1st, when the merger with TD Bank was first delayed. Then the liquidity crisis hit a week later, which led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. And in May, regulators called off the merger entirely.
"For us, it was a different flavor that nobody else in the industry had," said Dmuchowski, who was working two jobs, juggling the demands as CFO while also serving as interim head of investor relations. "We had a ton of factors going on with our investors, our shareholders, our employees and our clients that no other bank had. By the time the deal had fallen through, we had gone through three crises in 60 days."
One of her passions is attracting people that don't fit the traditional mold of banking. First Horizon does not have a diversity quota but has achieved one of the most diverse management teams in the industry by focusing on talent, she said.
"We recruit the best talent and we hire people committed to diversity rather than setting a goal out there. Having a diverse team just happened organically by having the right culture in place and having diversity at the table," she said. "You don't have to fit that standard mold to get to where you want to and to make a difference."
