Rosemarie Greco: one of the country's top woman bankers reemerges from retirement to take on civic and directorship challenges.

• Author: Alioto, Maryann
• Position: Director Spotlight

A few months before the announced merger of First Union Corp. and CoreStates Financial Corp., Philadelphia's last remaining major independent bank, Rosemarie Greco resigned from her position as CoreStates' president. This sudden move puzzled the business community. Greco, who at the time of her resignation in August 1997 was the highest-ranked female bank executive in the United States, explained her move in a recent interview with DIRECTORS & BOARDS as a case of, "I want to be somewhere where I can make a difference."

Greco is saddened by the acquisition of CoreStates, a $19.7 billion transaction that was completed in April 1998. "The world-class city that Philadelphia is emerging to be should have a major financial center," says this dedicated native of the city. "I guess it's part of that Quaker parochial tradition of Philadelphians to want their own and be among their own."

After her resignation, Greco laid low for eight months before reemerging on the Philadelphia business scene this spring. She accepted the position of president and CEO of the city's Private Industry Council as well as accepting a board seat on two of the city's eminent corporations - PECO Energy Corp. and Sun Co. Inc. "It is no secret that this is a labor of love for me more than anything else," says Greco of the Private Industry Council, a nonprofit organization she began heading in April. "I was not, am not looking for a job." She is spearheading an ambitious welfare-to-work job plan, which has a goal of placing 15,000 welfare recipients into long-term employment. Greco feels confident in her ability to guide this city-funded $51 million program. "You can walk on water," she states, "if you know where the stones are."

Greco's ability to follow the stones is exemplified by her atypical career path. She is frequently and erroneously described by news reporters as a former nun. She did study to be a nun but left the convent in 1968, joining Fidelity Bank as a secretary with the sole intention of earning enough money to complete her education degree. (At that time a major bank in the city, Fidelity would also subsequently be absorbed into First Union.)

When she became head of training at Fidelity, she applied her teaching aspirations to her new position by writing and developing training programs. She later became head of human resources and continued to move up the ranks, eventually becoming president. To this day she still sounds surprised when she talks of the day...