CEO
Stearns Bank
A self-confessed "unexpected banker", she spent the first two decades of her career in courtrooms and conference rooms, practicing law for both the public defender's office and the Chicago Board of Education. But in 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession, Skalicky felt the pull back to the family business. Founded by Skalicky's father in 1963 – the same year she was born – she had agreed to help the bank with the rescue mission.
At the time, Stearns was one of a handful of banks tapped by the FDIC to assume ownership of failing banks. Through this process she came to see the local bank as the hub of a town.
"Sometimes you have to get out of your own community to see how banking can be empowering," Skalicky said.