CEO of the Largest Black Woman-Owned Financial Firm Inducted Into Bond Buyers’ Hall of Fame

She experienced the Black Monday crash in 1987, a few months after she started on Wall Street, but presently runs one of the most successful firms in the country.

Suzanne Shank, president and CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. (SWS), the nation’s largest woman- and minority-owned, non-bank financial firm, has been inducted into The Bond Buyer Hall of Fame.

According to SWS, The Bond Buyer Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have left an innovative legacy on the business of municipal finance and the people and places it represents.

“These individuals are standard-bearers, innovators, trend-setters — people who have had an indelible impact on the industry they’ve dedicated their professional lives to,” said Michael Scarchilli, Editor in Chief of The Bond Buyer in a news release.

“I have had the great fortune to have accomplished, trailblazing partners as well as hardworking, dedicated employees who have made my journey possible. I am truly honored for this induction – alongside some remarkable industry peers – into the inaugural Bond Buyer Hall of Fame class,” Shank said in a news release.

According to the statement, Shank is one of just five living honorees who was selected for the first-ever induction, with two others recognized posthumously.

The Bond Buyer reported Shank founded Siebert Williams Shank in 1996 as a startup company. In 2010, the enterprise was the first firm to rank in the top 10 list of senior managers of negotiated transactions. The merger of Siebert Cisneros Shank and The Williams Capital Group earned the status as largest minority- and women-owned investment banking firm in the country in 2019.

“She is a visionary when it comes to growing our firm,” Gary Hall, partner, and Head of Investment Banking for Infrastructure & Public Finance at Siebert Williams Shank, said in an October statement.

“She’s a wonderful listener, extremely competitive and driven, but also very empathetic. I’ve learned from her more about the use of honey versus the use of lemon.” Hall added.

This year, Siebert Williams Shank and Co. received the inaugural Earl Graves Sr. Visionary Award, at the Entrepreneurs Summit Awards Luncheon on Thursday, May 19, named for the late Earl Graves, founder of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine.