Freedom bucking leadership trend, but racial diversity remains elusive

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Anthony A. Botelho, president of Freedom National Bank in Smithfield, speaks with bank vice presidents Andrea White and Laura A. Stack. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Anthony A. Botelho, president of Freedom National Bank in Smithfield, speaks with bank vice presidents Andrea White and Laura A. Stack. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Anthony Botelho, president and CEO of Freedom National Bank, is the most senior member of his Smithfield-based bank. While his profile as a white male fits the norm for bank leaders in Rhode Island and across the nation, his small leadership team bucks the trend.

Since being appointed in 2011, Botelho has hired two women as his most senior members: Andrea White, vice president of community banking, also in 2011 and Laura Stack, vice president, senior portfolio manager, in 2013. Both replaced men, though the incoming Rhode Island Bankers Association president chalks both hires up to an effort to bring in the most-qualified candidates, rather than to specifically promoting gender diversity.

But Botelho says he’d like there to be a greater focus given to women in the banking industry.

“My goal, frankly, is to make people more aware of their significance [in the industry] and highlight some of these up-and-coming executives,” Botelho said.

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Botelho points to one up-and-comer in his own ranks, Marissa Zangrili, who started in consumer lending in 2013, moved into commercial lending at the end of 2014 and is now training to be a credit analyst in small-business lending.

The bank, which also has a branch in Cumberland, employs 21 mostly full-time workers; 15 of whom are women.

Botelho believes women moving up industry ranks is happening organically, but he’s less certain about the current situation for racial minorities. Anecdotally, he sees signs of growing diversity within financial institutions across the state and region, especially in markets with strong ethnic and racial diversity, and believes banks will become more diverse with population shifts.

But at Freedom, he says, it hasn’t happened yet. While the bank comprises various ethnicities, such as Portuguese, Italian, French and Irish, it currently employs no racial minorities.

“When we do have opportunities to hire, the pool of applicants and candidates [has] not been that diverse,” he said. •

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