Karen Wegmann, Wells Fargo

Karen Wegmann was an art school graduate and sculptor working as a manager at Bloomingdale’s department store in New York in 1975 when she answered a newspaper ad and wound up as an operations manager at Morgan Guaranty bank.

Today, the 43-year-old is an executive vice president at Wells Fargo, one of the highest-ranking women in the U.S. banking industry. About 2,600 full-time employees report to her, and she is responsible for critical back-shop operations and customer transactions statewide.

When she started with Wells Fargo in 1981 as the manager of check processing, Wegmann was young in addition to being female. So, she said, she learned quickly to stress competence and cooperation in an attempt to make the men who worked for her comfortable.

“The youth part went away,” she said with a laugh. “But it is still important that I appear to be a competent, cooperative colleague.”

Nonetheless, she said, there are so few women at the top in banking that any mistakes they make are more glaring. But Wegmann believes that is changing.

“Women are coming out of school with an identical set of skills to men and with the same opportunities,” she said.