Suzanne Shank Leads through Empathy Amid the Crisis

As Suzanne Shank sees it, business leaders need to ramp up communication dramatically in times of crisis.

It is a strategy that the municipal bond market veteran is using to great effect as a way to share valuable insights and help calm employees and clients struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

From frequent calls that help keep employees of her Wall Street investment banking firm connected while they are working from home to newly launched town halls for issuers and investors trying to make sense of market conditions, she aims to stay visible and share as much information as possible to combat the sense of uncertainty that everyone shares these days.

Shank is, after all, no stranger to dealing with challenges. She is CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. and president and largest equity owner of its parent company, Shank Williams Cisneros & Co.

She has overseen the growth of her business from a startup in 1996 to the largest minority- and women-owned investment banking firm in the country. It earned that status in late 2019, with the merger of Siebert Cisneros Shank and The Williams Capital Group.

Siebert Williams Shank is a top-ranked manager for municipal bond transactions. Combined its two predecessor companies have participated in about 2,000 municipal financings in the last five years and have been lead managers on over 200 financings totaling about $30 billion…

Read the full Bond Buyer article here.

Written June 4, 2020 Author: Chip Barnett Market Reporter, The Bond Buyer