Suzanne Johnson Park Bank Vice-President and Centro Board Chair: Community Focused (Part 1 of 2)
Suzanne Johnson’s childhood laid a strong foundation for Johnson’s professional and community roles in Madison.
by Jonathan Gramling
Suzanne Johnson, senior vice-president of branch banking at Park Bank and Centro Hispano’s board chair, laid a strong foundation during her childhood that blossomed into a fulfilling professional career and community involvement.
Johnson grew up on Madison’s east side and had to look no further than her family for positive role models.
“I just have a strong work ethic that was embedded in me,” Johnson said. “My mom was a single mom. I watched her work really hard. And so I’ve just always been someone who works hard. It didn’t dawn on me until later, even being in leadership and being an older sibling and those types of things. It was just always in me to want to wok and work for the things that you want. I have a lot of amazing role models in my family too where I’ve seen it. I don’t even know if I thought it when I was younger. ‘Oh my gosh, I’m working a lot really hard.’ It’s just what I did.”
Johnson even had a strong role model where she went for day care.
“My great aunt is Joyce Boggess who ran the Early Childhood Learning Center,” Johnson said. “Joyce is phenomenal and I look up to her. And I have a lot of relatives that I just love.”
Johnson also got a strong assist from the Urban League as she began to form her professional career.
“I actually went to the Urban League and practiced interviewing skills,” Johnson said. “It was their Pre-Employment Program. They worked on that with middle schoolers. And my first job was at CUNA Credit Union as a 14-year-old. I remember dressing up and then going into a bank to ask for an application and talk with the manager to see if they were hiring. I remember I was told that they weren’t hiring, but then the manager came out, met with me and then sent me downtown. And I ended up getting hired after that.”
Johnson also worked at the Kohls Food Store that used to be located on E. Washington Ave. where she picked up more valuable skills.
“I think about the grocery store in terms of balancing the store’s receipts. I was a supervisor responsible for sending people on their breaks, cashing checks, paying bills, all of that good stuff.”
Johnson went to college for a while before she started pursuing her career in banking
“I worked as a personal banker, then as a loan officer and then as assistant manager,” Johnson said. “Then I became a manager. Then I managed two locations and then I ended up managing 12 locations. When I had my regional position, which was 12 locations, I traveled to Pewaukee, Sussex, Waukesha, and Oconomowoc. But I was always located in Madison.”
It was a great opportunity for personal and professional growth.
“I oversaw 12 locations with 12 different managers,” Johnson said. “And I oversaw the strategies of what I was doing in my area, the goals, the development of our team, and facilitating our meetings. It was great learning for me. I think one of the biggest transitions was going from two branches to 12 and having to learn the styles of the different managers. A lot of the managers were there longer than me. I feel very early on I adapted to learning people, how to work with them and how to read alongside them. hen you work with someone and they don’t see you every single day, you have to understand how you are perceived and how you want to be perceived and how you work intentionally with that individual. I learned a lot to be more intentional with how I communicate and I support leaders in their development. That taught me a lot about myself as well.”
And then Johnson ran into an opportunity that she couldn’t refuse.
“A lovely person from Park Bank walked into one of my locations one day,” Johnson said. “They were shopping. They let me know they were hiring. That really started the conversation. I had known someone who had worked there who always had a great experience. So he had gotten me in touch with current CEO.”
Johnson’s hard work led to more opportunities within Park Bank.
“I oversee all of our nine locations,” Johnson said. “We have nine locations that span across Dane County: Cross Plains, Middleton, Old Sauk, Verona, Fitchburg, Downtown Madison, Hilldale. Sun Prairie and Park Street. I will have been with Park Bank nine years in February. I started working with two of our locations here. I really wanted to work with a boss I could learn and develop under too and someone who is willing to hear some of my goals and all of that good stuff. So I had the two locations. And then I was tapped on the shoulder to start developing other managers into market managers. Then I was very quickly promoted to almost all of the branches and then the following year, I had all of the branches.”
Johnson enjoys her work at Park Bank, not only because of the responsibility, but also the flexibility it allows to do it her way.
“I’ve always done this, work outside of the box in my own bubble, do things that are creative or work with my team in a certain way,” Johnson said. “I have my own style of leadership that I have learned. But with Park Bank, I think I have more freedom to do that and more opportunities to focus on the community side, which is what I love doing. I got to do a little bit of that. But being here, I really have the chance to learn a lot about the inner workings of banking. It’s like the curtain is pulled back a little bit more versus, ‘Hey, here’s your role.’And that’s great. It’s also great to learn about how they can actually support our community too.”
Community involvement is what also keeps Johnson at Park Bank. While the bank gives employees some paid time off to volunteer, Johnson and many others take their volunteerism beyond that.
“I was involved in the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce, the Women and Wealth Committee through United Way, the Wisconsin Bankers Association financial literacy advisory board and Maydm,” Johnson said. “I was supporting and facilitating our MoneyWise Program, which was co-created with the executive director. We focus on financial literacy for students. That was pretty meaningful. Throughout that experience, we had a lot of our senior leaders support it and give their knowledge.”
Through one of her past employers, Johnson got to know Karen Menéndez Coller, the CEO of Centro Hispano through participating on a Camino Finance Employer Panel.
“I was able to join a Zoom at that time where we got to interview Camino’s finance participants who were looking for work in the financial field,” Johnson said. “At the time, the program was a 10-week program.”
It was one of the connections that led Johnson to make a strong commitment to Centro.
Next issue: Involvement at Centro