Women Break New Ground in Financial Services
by Joanna Rustin

This summer marked another occasion to celebrate women climbing to new heights in California when Bank of America appointed Janet Lamkin to its top post in the state.

Janet, a Past President of PBWC, oversees Bank of America’s
civic and community presence across all California markets, including state-level leadership for 15 California Market Presidents.

Now a few months into her new job, Connections magazine editor Joanna Rustin
caught up with Janet to see what drives her in and out of the office:

Q. Best career advice you ever received?
Get experience running a P & L (profit and loss statement).

Q. Best advice you’ve ever given?
Take risks, particularly early in your career to land in a position that will give you broad experience.

Q. One thing you love about your job at Bank of America?
The diversity of each day.

Q. A myth you’d like to dispel about women’s leadership positions?
That women aren’t decisive. Women are analytical and decisive based on that analysis.

Q. A leader you admire?
Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader under house arrest in Burma. I have been to Burma and its devastating to see what is happening there. Her leadership to stand up to those forces is beyond heroic.

Q. Books you’re reading?
The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright

Q. Best way to spend a day off?
A leisurely lunch in the wine country.

Q. What can’t you live without?
Morning workout with the “gym girls.”

As seen in the
Fall 2007 issue of PBWC Connections

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