On Friday, November 17, three local business leaders – Monica M. Campbell, vice president, Community Development, Enterprise Bank & Trust; Patricia Strong Hodges, project manager, Wells Fargo Advisors; and Christopher A. Pickett, officer and chief diversity officer, Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale – will receive the 2017 Excellence in Business Performance Award at the St. Louis American Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Business networking luncheon and awards reception.
Monica Campbell
“I’m the liaison between the bank and the community,” said Monica M. Campbell, vice president of Community Development at Enterprise Bank and Trust, “to foster and provide financial wellness for the community on the mortgage side, or small business, or personal.”
She teaches and otherwise helps with financial literacy classes at various organizations, including one financial empowerment class with the City of St. Louis, and partners with nonprofits to help people learn about homebuying.
“I think it’s important, because when the community owns the property in the neighborhood, they have a vested interest in that area and it promotes growth,” she said. “It instills confidence. You know, like, ‘I’m not renting, I actually own something.’”
She began her work at a different bank as a customer service representative 21 years ago, then became a personal banker when she realized that what she really wanted was to have face-to-face interactions.
“I was helping people, helping them save on their finances and things like that, but in my early 20s I couldn’t see it,” Campbell said. “I knew there was something missing, and I actually needed to see the people. So they told me I needed to be a personal banker.”
She switched jobs to Enterprise Bank because she saw that they were already invested in the educational aspect of banking through Enterprise University, teaching free classes in finance, human resources, marketing and other topics.
“You don’t even have to be a customer of the bank,” Campbell said. “They get the whole education piece. So that was one of the things that drew me to Enterprise.”
Now she works to make a more interconnected, supportive, and financially healthy St. Louis. Ultimately, she said, “Anything that promotes financial wellness within the community, I’m cultivating those relationships.”
Patricia Strong Hodges
As a project manager at the St. Louis office of Wells Fargo Advisors, Patricia Strong Hodges is tasked with making sure that her financial advising firm complies with all government regulations.
With many different regulatory agencies affecting the financial sector, this could be enough to occupy anyone’s time. But Hodges has taken it upon herself to help the company apply with a different set of standards as well, by starting initiatives to diversify her workplace.
“I created an internship program that focused on directly linking to Harris-Stowe State University,” Hodges said.
Students in the program work in a variety of departments at Wells Fargo, but Hodges said they also learn to be comfortable in a business culture environment. Hodges wanted to partner with Harris-Stowe because its campus is located right next door to her office, and because it is a historically black university.
In addition to her internship program, Hodges managed a diversity recruiting pilot program at Wells Fargo, with the goal of hiring financial advisors whose racial makeup matched that of the community they were serving.
Wells Fargo gives financial advice to its clients, and Hodges wanted to make sure everyone could get advice from someone who looked like them, someone they could trust. The program successfully hired 52 new trainees and 21 experienced financial advisors.
Hodges is a firm believer that that people of diverse backgrounds all bring important perspectives to a business, and Wells Fargo, she said, is as well.
“One of the things Wells Fargo is focused on,” Hodges said, “is that you can come to work as who you are.”
Christopher Pickett
As a young public defender working in rural Missouri, Christopher Pickett remembers the day he was assigned to represent a white supremacist with a swastika tattooed on his neck and the words “white power” on his forearms.
Obvious differences aside, Pickett found ways to gain his client’s trust and work with him. “I learned early on that if you’re honest, respectful and direct, and stand up for yourself, you can move the needle forward,” he said. “It’s not going to move it all the way, but incremental movement is important.”
Pickett remains forthright and direct as he talks about the lack of diversity among St. Louis law firms, even as he looks for ways to move the needle forward. As chief diversity officer at Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, PC, Pickett’s role includes helping diverse attorneys navigate the corporate legal culture and increase their numbers at the firm.
“What can we do to make St. Louis a destination city and keep diverse and progressive and forward-thinking people here?” Pickett said.
A St. Louis native, Pickett graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Manchester and received bachelor’s degrees in History and Russian from Saint Louis University (SLU). He received his J.D. from SLU’s School of Law.
As a trial lawyer, Pickett represents companies in business litigation disputes and specializes in employment disputes, unfair competition and securities litigation. He leads Greensfelder’s Securities and Financial Services industry group.
Pickett’s professional ethic extends into his volunteer work. Whether he’s mentoring young law students, small business owners in disadvantaged neighborhoods, or high school students facing the future, Pickett looks for ways to help them succeed and build a diverse and prosperous base in the metro area.
“To the extent I can help LGBT and diverse attorneys or law students of color and students progress in their careers,” he said, “and reverse the process of people leaving the city and helping them remain, that is my goal.”
The 18th Annual Salute to Excellence in Business Awards & Networking Luncheon will be held Friday, November 17 at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis, with a networking reception at 11 a.m. and luncheon program at noon. Tickets are $100 for Preferred/VIP seating and $75 for general admission. Call 314-533-8000 or visit www.stlamerican.com for more information or to purchase tickets.