ALBERTA CEFIS – HOW TO WIN BIG IN BANKING By Sue Van Der Hout
Finance has long been a male game and one of the hardest for women to crack. Alberta Cefis, Executive Vice President & Group Head, Global Transaction Banking for Scotiabank, Canada´s second largest bank, is responsible for providing global banking solutions to customers in the corporate, commercial and retail segments worldwide. An exception in the industry, she is a role model at Scotiabank, demonstrating what women can positively contribute to changing bank culture as well as the bottom line. She does both fearlessly.
One of the greatest risks a woman can take is being herself. In many places women need to become androgynous to succeed, wear pants, no make-up, no heels. It’s best to be blah - fade into the background, become one of the guys. Not this powerhouse. Alberta’s hair is auburn, her clothes are head turning, the look designer. When she enters a room she makes an impression.
Alberta Cefis is very bright, very confident and candid. She is multicultural. She was born in Italy and her parents came to Canada with the expectation that she would be educated, that she would adopt their world vision and that she would succeed in her own right.
It is not easy competing as a woman in an environment that´s been traditionally male. Being ambitious can be crippling to a woman’s career. Alberta acknowledges that while it’s expected for men to be ambitious, women who are perceived as ambitious are often pegged as being too masculine, too tough. They don´t belong. But there is no doubt that Alberta’s driven, that she’s been willing to run that race and to achieve her goal of becoming an executive of a major bank, taking some calculated risks.
Alberta was recruited from the Royal Bank to Scotiabank when she was at the top of her game. She says that when she left the Royal Bank, people said that she was crazy to go from Canada´s first bank to Canada´s fifth. At the time, she knew thousands of people at Royal Bank and she knew them by name. Moving required her to learn a whole new network and build a new business. The learning curve was worthwhile because it put her in the executive position of responsibility and accountability she aspired to. Leaving a known track was difficult. But she had drive, grit, determination and the confidence that she would shine and become a vice president of her new bank in short order. Global banking is complex and culturally diverse, a challenge that involves both corporate and commercial elements. Building that business, harder. Key to her success was her strong sense of her brand – her ability to build a new business from scratch, a willingness to take opportunities and risks and to connect with people. She speaks four languages and in her global responsibilities, she uses them all.
Getting ahead in an environment where the management is predominantly male was not easy. Big companies still tend to be run by men in their mid-50s and often still have "role" separation. She says that the challenges are great to get them to overcome the psychology of male/female. "You need men who are tremendously liberated, or men who accept women as equals or partners or superior, or just people who are very open individuals".
Canadian banks are on the move in relation to women. They want to get women at the management table. Indeed Scotiabank won Catalyst’s 2007 award for its Advancement of Women Initiative, a business driven initiative with seven strategic pursuits designed to attract, retain, and advance women. And it’s working. As Catalyst reports, Scotiabank improved its representation of women at the senior level from 18.9% in 2003 to 31% in 2006, and at the most senior corporate officer level from 26.7% to 36.8% from 2003 to 2006. It’s an initiative that Alberta champions. But she cautions that there are still challenges to be met. Women have to perform. Why? Because: "Men are promoted on potential, women on performance. Women have to prove themselves all the way along."
| "Men are promoted on potential, women on performance. Women have to prove themselves all the way along." |
Getting to and succeeding at that level of top management is not a 9-to-5 job. In order to get ahead to say that she always put her hand up for every extra assignment came up.
Being involved and networking is critical. She says that she’s a participant on a myriad of committees. By working with associations and committees she says that you get used to idea generation, to being a participant, creating relationships with peers and management and getting known. Her ability to connect with people is legendary. One of her unique abilities is to remember faces and names. She says that she knows thousands. The most important faces and names to know, she says, are those of the people who work for you (there are hundreds that contribute to bottom line success), your key partners and their people, people above you, the next round of management and the top management team. Networking is about bouncing around ideas, mentoring, sharing opportunity, meeting people. And it has to be broader than work. She’s the Chair of the Board of an Opera Company (Opera Atelier), that is involved providing an opera school for inner city kids.
| But you´ll never become a senior executive by just doing the work. The job is bigger than that. |
Another key to opening doors is getting an MBA. Only 28% of the MBA class was women when Alberta went to school in the late 70s. She says it hasn´t changed that much. It´s important for women to get that degree.
Finally, it’s important to leverage your talent. Every time you take an assignment, think about what you´re learning and where that can take you. She says the women are generally co-opted for staff, not business aligned functions and the difference, she says, is critical. Go for opportunities that add value to the bottom line. And it’s important to ask.
| "Don´t expect someone to offer you things. You have to ask. You have to say you´re interested." |
01.10.2007
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Alberta Cefis She loves theater. She’s a doer. She exercises daily at lunch or in the evening and on the weekends plays tennis, roller blades, bikes, or does yoga. Holidays are either cultural trips or beach vacations for R & R and sailing, snorkeling, swimming and kayaking.
She acknowledges that everyone has different energy levels and a different sense of worklife balance. For her and her husband, the focus is each other, their careers, travel.
Alberta has been named Canadian woman leader of the year for 2007 by the Federated Press and has repeatedly been named to the Top 100 List of Canada´s Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network.
As Executive Vice-President & Group Head, Global Transaction Banking (GTB), Alberta Cefis is leading the evolution of trade finance, correspondent banking, cash management, payments, e-commerce and e-banking at Scotiabank, in order to provide global business solutions to customers in the corporate, commercial and retail segments. Alberta assumed her current position in May 2006. Prior to this, she was Executive Vice-President, Domestic Personal Lending & Insurance, and President & CEO, Scotia Mortgage Corporation, with responsibility for consumer, small business and commercial automotive lending, as well as insurance services and retail risk.
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