The Most Powerful Women to Watch: No. 18, Julieann Thurlow, Reading Cooperative Bank

Julieann Thurlow is a bank CEO and the current chairman of the American Bankers Association. But she is still surprised when people she meets at conferences know who she is.

"I underestimated the message that being a woman and being chair of the American Bankers Association says to others in the industry as to what opportunity exists at the top of their organization," said Thurlow.

One message she is spreading during her tenure as ABA chairman, which ends in October, is the importance of serving niche groups in a bank's community. At Reading Cooperative Bank, which is headquartered in Reading, Massachusetts, that means Hispanic immigrants in the city of Lawrence. "We sometimes talk about the unbanked in a disparaging way — why would they use a check casher, why would they use a payday loan?" said Thurlow. "Maybe those services are more accessible and understandable." 

The Lawrence branch, which opened in June 2023, is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. She hopes banks in other regions see such communities, whether they are bonded together by a religion or language, as an opportunity rather than a challenge. The pace of account opening in that branch has been brisk, especially among small-business owners. Half of the accounts opened at that branch since its inception are for small businesses.

Thurlow has been the CEO at Reading for 18 years. "The farther along you get in your career, you start thinking about the day you stop having a career," she said. While that time for Thurlow is still a ways away, preparing a successor is a long game, involving difficult conversations about who is or isn't ready for a senior role and what skills they need to get there. 

"If nobody tells you that you're deficient in a certain area, you can't go out and correct it," said Thurlow. She notes that she has been accused of abrasiveness, which is something she works on.

Preparing for the next role, even one many years down the line, is something Thurlow has put into practice herself. When asked to choose one thing she did to advance her career, Thurlow highlighted investing in education. She received her MBA from Fairfield University in 2002, and attended the National School of Banking from 1998 to 2000, which is now the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. "Don't wait until it's convenient," she said. "Invest early so you have the tools to be successful and to walk into a role when the opportunity presents itself."

Thurlow is also a founding member of Alloy Labs, a consortium of banks formed with the purpose of innovating in the banking space. In June, after serving on its working group for three years, she was named as co-chair of the Massachusetts Fintech Hub, a public-private partnership with the goal of turning Massachusetts into a thriving fintech hub.