Black History Month One-On-One: Suzanne Shank
Anchored By 1010 WINS' Larry Mullins
Produced for 1010 WINS Radio by Sharon Barnes-Waters
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — She's been named one of the top 25 women in finance and one of the 75 most powerful blacks on Wall Street, and financial titan Suzanne Shank is also one of 1010 WINS' Black History Month honorees for 2016.
When cities need to build a school, a highway or even an airport, Shank is the go-to woman to put together the financing.
"Those facilities are financed by municipal bonds," she explained to 1010 WINS' Larry Mullins. "We comb the market for the best deal for every client."
Shank is the chairman and CEO of municipal finance firm Siebert Brandford & Shank LLC.
"We're a small, boutique firm and so we're able to do deals so far as small as $3 million and as large as $1.5 billion," she said.
Web Extra: Siebert Brandford & Shank
Shank's trek down Wall Street began in 1996 when the only woman with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, Muriel 'Mickie' Siebert, asked her to lead a boutique firm. That firm would go on to become the most powerful female and minority-owned municipal finance firm in the country.
Still, Shank remains humble.
"I don't think I'm a hero. Mickie Siebert, she's a hero because she's such a trail blazer," Shank said.
But her rise to the top hasn't always been easy.
"I started on Wall Street just before Black Monday in 1987," Shanks said.
More: Black History Month Photo Gallery | Larry's Blog: Suzanne Shank
But when the market shut down, guess who helped it storm back?
"We did the first deal that re-entered the market for the state of Connecticut; a $250 million deal," she said.
Shank said she got her work ethic from her father, who was the first black bus driver in Georgia, Mullins reported.
"And he fought racial discrimination to the executive director of local transit authority," she said.
Shank now passes that work ethic on through a local mentoring program she supports in cities across the country.
