There’s such a gender gap in the executive suite that would any man have volunteered — like Karen Maidment did when I first sat down to interview her in 2001 — that he’d been up with his two young boys for two nights because they had the flu? And then produce a photo of them, in happier times, grinning amid the fall colours?
“Our pride and joy,” said Maidment, chief financial officer of the Bank of Montreal. The boys are fair-haired like their father,whom Maidment often asked: “Why did I do all the work and the kids look just like you?”
Now she’s got this day job where chief executive Tony Comper wants the bank to look just like him. Maidment, a former chartered accountant, also has ideas of her own. “I’m not here just to count the beans. I will work to transform the role of the CFO to a more strategic focus than CFOs in some organizations.”
In October 2000 when Maidment, then 42, arrived from her previous job as CFO at Clarica Life Insurance,Bank of Montreal was two weeks away from year-end. She not only plunged in to learn the processes, but also urged the bank to disclose more financial information than it had previously released, including targets for return on equity, expenses, revenue growth and capital. “I have a strong belief that putting out clearly your targets helps the investment community to understand where you’re going.”
Maidment oversaw finance, audit, legal and investor relations. Eight people reported directly to her, representing 675 employees. Shortly after joining the bank she invited 130 of them to a two-day session to share a vision so simple that it could be captured by one diagram— a pyramid with four layers. At the wide bottom, there are transactions; control and governance are on the next layer up. Employees spent most of their time on that lower half of the pyramid.
She wanted everyone to move up to the top two layers: decision support and strategic financial management. “In most finance areas you get caught in the day-to-day challenges of dealing with all kinds of information requests, dealing with regulators, dealing with auditors. We have to do that but we have to work on strategic financial management as well.”
But this was no Clarica with 4,100 employees. Bank of Montreal had 32,000 employees. Employees feared change but Maidment is a missionary. “My vision for the group is to move the balance of time up the curve so that we can create value for the bank, and we can also make the environment more rewarding for the people working in it.”
Bank of Montreal had first approached Maidment the previous May. She declared no interest but several people at the bank called to urge that she at least explore the idea. Over six weeks she met a dozen senior executives, held four lengthy meetings with Comper, and became enthused by his desire to transform the CFO role, as well as improve the bank’s performance relative to its rivals. “It’s not just what he says, it’s what you believe about what he says. I had to spend enough time with him to understand whether I bought in, whether I could work with him, whether I could work with the other members of the team and whether I thought I would learn.”
Equally important was maintaining a life balance. She didn’t want to uproot her family in Cambridge, Ont., more than an hour west of ɫɫ, so commuted daily. “You’ve got to spend a lot of time with people face to face.”
The bank agreed she could work from home whenever she wanted. “Just having Fridays working at home makes a tremendous difference from a personal point of view. Many of the meetings I’m having are conference calls so it doesn’t matter if I’m working out of the home office.”
Much of what Maidment had done so far was clean up the balance sheet so the bankwas more focused on wealth management and mid-market commercial loans than it was under Matthew Barrett, Comper’s predecessor. “Big organizations can sprinkle resources into a lot of areas and not be successful. The key message here is focus and it’s about becoming strong in the markets that we choose to be in. It’s not trying to be all things to all people.”
Unlike many chartered accountants who enjoy auditing, Maidmenthad always sought other rewards. “For me, the numbers in themselves aren’t that exciting. It’s the story they tell and the opportunity to use the numbers to be part of the business. I want to be part of the decision-making, part of the implementation, versus providing advice. My focus has been on leadership, focus, strategy and people.” At home, Maidment, a member of Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame and now retired,probably shows photos of bankers to her family.
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