Chamber President Laurie White sat down for a conversation with Yvette Vargas, Executive Vice President, Head of Development for Citizens Bank. They spoke about the necessary leadership traits and emerging workforce skills highly valued by companies like Citizens.

Yvette detailed how Citizens has used collaboration and innovation to pivot during the COVID-19 crisis and how the bank is building greater levels of understanding and empathy among colleagues regarding issues of racial equity.

Yvette and Laurie also discussed the $10 million commitment by Citizens to promote social equity and drive economic advancement in underserved communities.  

The investment will include grants and charitable support for immediate and longer-term initiatives aimed at supporting minority-owned small businesses, increasing awareness of racial disparities, and supporting underserved communities through technology, education and digital literacy initiatives.

It also includes more than $500 million in incremental financing and capital for small businesses, housing, and other development in predominately minority communities.

Quote of Note
"For Citizens, the call to action relative to social justice is not new...We have a lot of work that we do in our community development space, our public affairs space to actually focus on those communities from an education, a workforce development point of view and an economic growth and development point of view."



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