Women Of The C-Suite: Andrea Gilman of Banyan On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview With Candice Georgiadice
Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and jump in from day one. Startups are not long-established, over staffed corporations. That’s a motivator and actually quite fun.
As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Gilman of Banyan.
Andrea serves as Banyan’s Chief Marketing Officer and also leads Banyan’s culture and belonging initiatives. She previously spent 20 years as an executive at Mastercard in new product development and marketing roles. Andrea currently advises several fintech start-ups and tests her growth mindset by learning how to golf.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve had an extensive career in payments, primarily focused on delivering transformative value to both merchants and banks. While an SVP at Mastercard, I led teams to deliver a global set of capabilities for SMBs to become digitally enabled, and also pioneered first-to-market B2B real-time payment applications that provided merchants a more seamless, data-rich payment experience. I saw the power that attaching data to payments could have in opening up more relevant and fruitful experiences. I joined Banyan as CMO in 2022 because the opportunity to work with smart teams and build an item-level data network to benefit consumers, merchants and banks was incredibly exciting to me.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
When leading marketing at a startup, you need to conceive big ideas and build company-wide support and buy-in to achieve those concepts. It is critical to focus on the really big and important initiatives that will have the greatest impact on customers. By embracing difficult challenges and removing the clutter, we can identify opportunities that will truly benefit the bottom line of the merchants and banks we are working for. At Banyan, we constantly gather customer feedback and determine which use cases they deem most valuable. Some of the questions we ask ourselves are “Where exactly will access to item-level data allow them to create better experiences for their customers?” or “How can this drive preference and top-line growth?” This process is how we identified the problem with expense reporting as it relates to business travel. We were told that searching for receipts, tracking past expenses and filling out expense reports was a very bad use of company time. From there, we began to explore how Banyan’s ability to provide item-level data can solve this problem and increase efficiencies around expense reporting and improve the customer experience.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the first events I tackled at Banyan was planning our activities at Money 20/20. Initially we planned on hosting a large dinner event, but it was hard to get a night-long commitment from event attendees. We decided to pivot to a cocktail party event which delivered a fabulous turn out and led to many valuable conversations with prospects and existing clients. This experience taught me that it is key to create opportunities for connection that are not only meaningful, but also convenient. This is especially true at a crowded event like Money 20/20.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Early in my career I was lucky to have a manager who became my advocate. As any good mentor should, he alerted me to any missteps and taught me how to lean into my strengths. This guidance helped me secure my first senior management position. He forced me out of my comfort zone and really pushed me to achieve things I never thought possible, such as delivering a new company wide strategy and presenting it to the board within the first few months of a new role. He was a true believer in servant leadership and really took the time to understand how and where I wanted to grow. It was clear he genuinely cared about all the people on his team. When one person fell ill, he made it a point to visit them in the hospital several times to provide encouragement. This mentor taught me the power of helping people by pushing them to achieve and exceed their potential.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
At Banyan, there are so many opportunities that our technology and solutions can unlock, so the real challenge is remaining laser-focused on projects that will deliver maximum success for our clients. It really comes down to ruthless prioritization. One of the most important things that a leader can do is make decisions about strategy — not only about what we’re going to do, but also what initiatives we are going to shelve because they are not going to be the best performer at the moment.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
Being an executive is about defining priorities and ensuring everyone in the company is in sync from initial concept, to strategy and straight through to execution. I also think it’s important for executives to be able to shift seamlessly between teams depending on what a situation calls for. Sure, I lead the marketing group, but I also spend significant time with the leadership team. And, when I’m in the room with leadership, I’m fully engaged with that team, working together to solve our collective challenge rather than staying in my marketing cocoon. When you fully understand your colleagues’ goals and objectives, you can provide meaningful contributions to your company beyond simply your “defined role.”
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
One big myth about being a marketing leader is that your only job is to manage vendors and spend money. It goes well beyond those things. It is critically important that marketers have the ability to create a compelling narrative and connect with people on a human level. It’s not simply crafting a compelling story — it is identifying what is special about your products and your company and then conveying those truths in an engaging fashion.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
While it’s assumed that men will naturally pursue a seat at the table, women need to actively decide that they want a seat at the table, when they want that seat and then go pursue it on a timeline that best suits them, and oftentimes, their family. Women are expected to play a leading role on diversity committees, and others in the company may not understand the amount of work that goes into these initiatives. What’s more, this type of work is not always rewarded or compensated appropriately, despite its importance. For a short while at Banyan, I was the only senior executive on our DEIB committee and it was also clear that we needed more male representation. I discussed this with our CEO. Fortunately, he made an immediate decision to join the committee himself and he has been truly engaged in this work with the team.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
The most striking difference is scope, especially moving from a larger company to a startup. At a startup, you have to wear so many more hats. You need to be focused on top-down strategy in one moment and ready to roll up your sleeves on something granular the next moment. The depth and breadth of the role across the different dimensions is much bigger than I thought it would be, but I’m also having a ton more fun than I anticipated.
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
The first trait is being able to make a lot of decisions effectively and quickly. The number of decisions that I need to make on a daily basis is rather high. And, as an executive, people expect you to have an answer on the ready. It’s okay to say, “Let me consider this and I’ll get back to you,” but you can’t say that every time. So it’s really important to know which decisions must be made quickly, which ones will benefit from a bit more time and which ones you need to socialize. Another key trait is the ability to inspire people to be their best selves and to bring their utmost effort to work every day. This is especially acute in a culture of remote work. It is critical to connect with and motivate teams at every turn. Of course, the primary focus must be on the customer — what it is that keeps them up at night and how you can help them advance the performance of their business.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and jump in from day one. Startups are not long-established, over staffed corporations. That’s a motivator and actually quite fun.
- Invest in your colleagues. The extent to which you invest in your colleagues determines how much they’ll invest in you and the company. This cannot be overstated.
- Stories are powerful, especially in a technology company. Start identifying your company’s unique offerings and begin building your story bank as soon as you can. This will allow you to communicate the power of your solutions and help you connect with customers in a meaningful way.
- Marketing and company culture go hand in hand. Marketing is how your brand is perceived externally, and culture is really about your internal story and mission. Both need to be authentic and synergistic.
- The value of meaningful work is a virtuous circle. It’s so important for each of us to find meaning and value in the work we are doing. When this dynamic is in place, anything is possible.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I spent five years on the board of Girls Inc. Westchester, a non-profit that works to educate girls ages 5-18 and gives them access to resources that help them be more confident and empowered. At Girls Inc., girls learn to value their whole selves, discover and develop their inherent strengths, and receive thesupport they need to navigate the challenges they face. I’ve seen Girls Inc. truly transform young people’s lives. The girls that go through the program are so poised, and most go on to do amazing things. Investing in our youth, especially those who do not have access to the resources they need, has the ability to bring the most amount of good for all and inspire them to improve upon the systems they inherited.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them
Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb. First off, he’s an amazing storyteller, and he fully embraces the power of a great story. He’s also done so many powerful things from a marketing perspective that really connect with people on an emotional level. I love the OMG! Category that features a collection of the most interesting and quirky homes on Airbnb. I also love how that company overcomes challenges. One example is the way they improved relationships with local governments. Also, Airbnb has an exemplary focus on its customer. After people complained about hidden fees, Chesky led Airbnb’s efforts to introduce a new policy that improved transparency and created more trust. I admire the way he innovates, collaborates and communicates.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Women Of The C-Suite: Andrea Gilman of Banyan On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.