It has been quite a week for Anne Finucane. Monday marked her first official day as chair of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Europe – a role she was named to earlier this year – and on Tuesday, she was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women List.
“It’s been a pretty amazing few days,” Finucane, who nabbed the No. 42 slot on Forbes’ list, told Know Your Value. “It’s nice company to keep, and a reminder of how success comes in so many professions and geographies.”
The top five on Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List reflect Finucane’s point: No. 1 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, followed by United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May, managing director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, CEO of General Motors Mary Barra and CEO of Fidelity Investments Abigail Johnson.
Finucane’s new European chair role is an expansion of her existing responsibilities as vice chair of Bank of America’s global operations. As Forbes wrote in its article, “Finucane oversees Bank of America's strategic direction and governs how the bank impacts the world … She leads the deployment of capital to address sustainable development goals and the application of data and analytics to improve profitability.”
In the European role, Forbes added, Finucane “is tasked with navigating a post-Brexit world for the bank” and is responsible for overseeing £30 billion in assets and business operations.
Finucane is also passionate about helping the next generation of female entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, she launched the Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell University, a free online course taught by Cornell faculty to help students gain the skills, knowledge and resources necessary to build, manage and scale a successful business.
The Institute will train 500 women through its executive certificate program by the end of its first year and aims to reach 5,000 women entrepreneurs over the next four years. The initiative, Finucane said at the time of launch, “demonstrates how we continue to deploy capital and invest in partnerships that advance women entrepreneurs and build thriving economies.”