President, CEO, Founder, and Owner,
Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC
B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology
MBA, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Spelman College Board of Trustees: Elected in 2011
Chair, Alternative Revenue Sources Committee
City of Residence: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Suzanne Shank is the president, CEO, founder and owner of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. LLC. She is the former president and CEO of Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., LLC, a municipal investment bank. Siebert Brandford Shank has managed deals for state and local governments across the country totaling over $700 billion. The company made history in 2010 becoming the first minority and woman-owned firm in Wall Street history to rank in the top 10 among municipal bond underwriters. Prior to her public finance career, Shank was an engineer with General Dynamics, Electric Boat Division, where she worked as a design engineer on various design projects.
A veteran of the industry, Shank has been named one of the most powerful or top women in finance in 2010 by U.S. Banker Magazine (2009 and 2010), American Banker Magazine, and WealthManagerWeb.com. She was recognized by Essence magazine in its 2008 Power List, by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 50 Most Influential Black Women in Business and as one of the 75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street. She has also been recognized by the Wharton School from among 100,000 graduates as one of its 125 Influential People and Ideas and was named the National Entrepreneur of the Year by the Madame C.J. Walker Center.
Shank is deeply committed to promoting mentorship of inner city youth, having formed and supported various mentorship programs across the country. She is active in numerous industry and civic organizations and serves on several boards including the Citizens Budget Commission, Women in Public Finance, Detroit Institute of Arts and Detroit Regional Chambers, among others.
I chose to serve on the Board because of Spelman’s rich tradition of providing access to a superior education and advancement opportunities for African-American women. Also, my mother and heroine, who is a Spelman alum, attributes her success to the wonderful education she received while there.
