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Mariam Abrahams reflects on her leadership path at the bank

When U.S. Bank was preparing to open a branch with new customer experience designs and technology in 2015, Mariam Abrahams was an obvious candidate to manage the location.

“I had been with the bank for five years as a branch manager in Los Gatos, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my performance had been in the top 1% in the company for three years in a row,” Abrahams said. “My leadership said they thought I could make a difference in opening the new branch.”

The branch, at the time the company’s first new California location in years, was an early precursor for the new relationship and digitally focused branch designs U.S. Bank is building today.

It featured new technology, including ATMs with greater functionality and hubs for clients to meet with specialists in business banking, mortgage, wealth management and other areas, as well as community rooms available for clients to use, even outside of the branch’s business hours.

“When the company opened other locations featuring similar designs after ours, I would connect with people at those other branches to guide and mentor them,” Abrahams said.

U.S. Bank has since continued evolving its branch design across its network, including in new branches in Chicago, Kansas City and Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as the first U.S. Bank military flagship branch in Tacoma, Washington.

Abrahams said she was proud to be the first person – and woman – to open a branch featuring designs and technologies that would influence the branch designs in use today.

Her leadership role has continued – she was promoted to a district manager position in 2018 and she works to mentor other women and help them be successful.

“I’m on the global board of the women’s business resource group at the bank,” she said. “I was the first president of the Northern California chapter when it launched in 2020.”

By drawing on her extensive banking career, Abrahams said, she can help other women manage some of the differences they face in leadership and career development.

“I help give other women tools to deal with situations and conversations when they happen.”