Eva Panuco

As a leader, I definitely value authenticity, continuous learning, collaboration, and empowerment. I believe that strong leaders remain genuine, never stop growing, and work together to achieve success. What's been really key for me is helping others reach their full potential as well. I think it's about staying true to who you are while constantly pushing yourself to learn and grow, and bringing others along with you on that journey.

The best advice I can give, which has guided my own journey, is to continue to pursue whatever makes you happy. When I started my banking journey, I literally had no banking experience whatsoever. I was just a customer doing a deposit on a Sunday, and I ended up helping with translation for other customers. The manager saw my customer service skills and offered me a job on the spot, even though I had no experience. I guess the advice I will give out is continue to pursue whatever makes you happy. Overall, especially me, since I'm very community involved and I love to help out with the community, just continue to pursue your passion, don't let nobody hold you back, don't let anything stop you from continuing your personal growth, because that's very, very, very important.

I think growth and confidence are key. Don't wait until you feel completely ready to pursue an opportunity. Some of the biggest moments in my life happened because I said yes before I even had everything figured out. So just believe in your abilities, continue learning, and do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. And of course, supporting other women is very important as well. I've learned that when you're in a room full of us that are very successful, I love to celebrate other women's accomplishments, support one another, and just build that genuine relationship. We need to lift each other up and create those meaningful connections.

The biggest challenge overall is not knowing the unknown. I feel like in the banking world, you just really never know what the next situation will be, and just being ready for it. You learn something new every day. Learning, experiencing, and overall, working together is so important because you just never know who's gonna walk in with what situation. We literally just had a situation last week where a customer, unfortunately, was scammed and sent out a large amount in a wire. Having to deal with that, showing that empathy, connecting with the customer, and reassuring them 'hey, we're here for you, we're here to help you' - but of course, in the back end, all of us were also freaking out. It takes a lot of professionalism to handle those unexpected situations.

I have so many values that guide me, but integrity is number one for sure. Resilience, compassion, and service are also incredibly important to me. Especially in the banking world, people trust us with some of the most important decisions of their lives, so having that integrity is essential. Resilience has helped me overcome challenges and continue growing, both personally and professionally. And then compassion - it allows me to connect with people and understand their needs. Service reminds me that success is about making a positive impact on others.