Kathleen St. Louis Caliento, President & CEO of Cara Collective; Marianne Markowitz, President and CEO of First Women’s Bank; and Kristie Paskvan, Associate Director of the Magelli Office of Experiential Learning, Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, at the Women United Annual Breakfast on March 4, 2025.
Women United members and United Way staff at the Women United Annual Breakfast, hosted at Deloitte.
Marianne Markowitz was six years old when her siblings told her she was bossy. As the youngest of five children, she learned from an early age how to assert herself. She was a leader in the making.
“Looking back, I’m really proud of myself for owning that status as a child, knowing I had this leadership ability in me and letting it out,” Marianne said at a recent breakfast fundraiser with United Way of Metro Chicago’s Women United.
In recognition of Women’s History Month, Marianne shared her story and insight during the keynote conversation, moderated by Kristie Paskvan, Associate Director of the Magelli Office of Experiential Learning, Gies College of Business – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
As a young girl in St. Louis, Marianne wanted to be a nun when she grew up.
“Growing up in my neighborhood, women didn’t work outside the home,” Marianne said. “The only career women I knew were the nuns at Holy Ghost, and they were amazing. They had power, status, independence, and ran the show. We feared them but also respected them.”
Marianne didn’t become a nun. But she charted her own path to success. After graduating from the University of Missouri, she received an MBA from DePaul University and eventually went on to hold leadership roles in finance and treasury at renowned global institutions in the U.S. and internationally. Today, she is President and CEO of First Women’s Bank, the nation’s only bank strategically built to grow the economy and elevate the women within it.
In 2019, Marianne joined a group of women business owners to lead the launch of First Women’s Bank, raising $40 million in two years, “the most ever raised by a startup bank in Illinois. We’re really proud of that,” Marianne said. The bank launched in 2021.
First Women’s Bank quickly drew investors and is successful because its mission is simple – to grow the economy and elevate the role of women within it, Marianne said. “Women are leading an economic revolution, but the statistics are staggering.” Women own 42% of small businesses in the U.S. but access about 5% of the dollars lent in the small business economy. Marianne said there are many drivers of the gender lending gap, but one of the main issues is that women “don’t lean into growth and certainly don’t lean into financing that growth.”
That’s where First Women’s Bank comes in – as a partner, encouraging women to finance the growth of their businesses and, ultimately, reducing the gender lending gap.
Like United Way of Metro Chicago, Marianne and First Women’s Bank are “focused on creating a stronger, more resilient region,” she said. “We’re both working to create a more inclusive and profitable economy that everyone can participate in. We’re working together to create systemic change.”
Marianne shared her advice for driving this change – and how to lift up fellow women leaders:
- Expand and nurture your communities. “I have a lot of different communities. I’m very fortunate in how they support different needs in my life. It’s important to show up and bring other people in. Not only is it important to give to your communities, but you also need to lean on them. We’re not alone, and there are people around us who want to help. You just have to remember to ask.”
- Own your decisions. “As women, it’s really important that we own our decisions. We should have our own contract with our careers and make decisions that align with your life and career goals, and give yourself permission to lean in or out of your career. This is our life and career, and these are our decisions to make.”
- Create your own definition of balance. “I hate the word balance. I think there is a lot of pressure on women to have it all – a big career, maybe a family, a social life – and still have balance. For many years, I tried to do everything and felt like I was always failing. I realized that I can’t have it all at once, and I can have my own definition of balance.”
- Nurture leadership qualities. “I look for selflessness, empathy, courage, and good judgement in future leaders. We all have those qualities to varying degrees and can intentionally develop them within ourselves. At the end of a meeting, ask yourself, ‘Did I speak up? Did I speak too much? Did I make room for another voice?’”
- Make yourself essential. “Early on in my career, I made myself essential to some pretty important people. It got me into the rooms where decisions were being made, and it’s a great way to broaden your perspective. There’s nothing like jumping in and offering to help during a crisis. You’ll learn so much.”
- Stand up, don’t sit down. “Prepare all you can for leadership, and when the opportunity comes, recognize it and stand up. If someone offers you the job, they believe in you, and you should too. Go for it.”
The Women United Annual Breakfast was generously sponsored by Deloitte, ITW, Orba, Wintrust, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Baker Tilly, Chicago White Sox, EY, Goldberg Kohn, KPMG, Mayer Brown, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosait.
View more photos from the event.
Learn more about building community through Women United.