IN AMERICA
Ruth Mahoney on her life and career in the USA!
Basketball was the passion which led to Ruth Mahoney, or Halley as she was then, emigrating to the United States in the mid-eighties. She had discovered the game while at primary school in Blackrock and continued to play it at St Vincent’s. Basketball was also the key which opened the door to banking as a career, and today she is Market President at KeyBank in Albany, upstate New York. The skills which made her stand out on the basketball court are those which have led to a successful career in the competitive world of finance.
Born in Dublin, Ruth’s family moved to Dundalk when her Dad took up the role of chief fire officer in Dundalk Fire Station.
Ruth has nothing but fond memories of her time in St Vincent’s. ‘All four of us went there. It was a great experience. Sr Brenda was the principal and was fantastic.’
She loved sport, especially basketball and wanted to be a P.E teacher, but she didn’t get enough points to go to St Pats. ‘I went to Dundalk Regional Technical College for a while and took engineering classes,’ she recalls.
‘I was playing a lot of basketball at the time and had moved from playing with the Dundalk Basketball Club with Brendan McCoy to playing for the West Coast Coolers in Dublin. I was travelling up and down to Dublin three or four times a week.’
Bank of Ireland were sponsoring the team she played with, and she ended up getting a job in the Clontarf branch. She loved the work, which gave her a good grounding in banking, and was inspired by the woman who was her manager at a time when not many women held senior roles in the financial sector. ‘She was a very strong banker, focused on building relationships with customers and I learned a lot from her’
‘I loved that time - I was a banker by day and playing basketball by night - it was a great experience.’
Ruth’s talent on the basketball court didn’t go unnoticed and she was spotted by a scout from the Marist College in New York’s Hudson River Valley, who offered her a full scholarship to go to the United states and play basketball.
‘I phoned my Mam and Dad and said I was thinking about taking it up. We didn’t even know where it was and had to look it up on a map. It was a really hard decision to make but it was a great opportunity and they supported me, saying I could always come home if it didn’t work out.’
It did work out, and today Ruth is a successful business woman and community leader in her adopted home country.
While she was homesick for a time, Ruth kept herself busy, playing basketball for the college and studying. ‘I studied business and was planning on going home and working for the Bank of Ireland. I was in my senior year and there were all these mock interviews so I decided to do some and get the experience.’
One of the interviews she did was with KeyBank and she made such a good impression that she was invited to go to Albany and interview for the bank’s management training programme.
This resulted in her having to tell her parents that there had been a change in plans, as she joined a year long training programme which gave her a thorough introduction to all aspects of banking.
‘I loved Albany, the people were great, the community was great,’ she remembers.
Then came the Morrison Visa Program which gave young Irish emigrants the opportunity to get a coveted Green Card, so that they could live and work in the United States.
Ruth applied for the Green Card lottery and also put in application for her sister Dawn, who was working in London at the time. Both sisters were lucky, with Ruth getting her Green Card eight months after Dawn. ‘I was on a work visa but the Green Card was the golden ticket,’ she recalls.
She became an American citizen ten years ago and holds dual citizenship.
Her husband Rob is an Albany native and the couple met while they were both on a work training programme. ‘ We have one son Patrick, named after my Dad. He’s 21, in senior college and is a college basketball player.’ Not only has he inherited Ruth’s love of basketball but also her height as he’s 6’5”.
The family have made their home in Albany, although they moved to Westchester just north of Manhatten, for six years, when Ruth was appointed president of KeyBank’s Hudson Valley/Metro New York City market in Tarrytown.
‘I really enjoyed that experience, especially the Irish pubs, restaurants, and Irish butchers, where I could get all the tastes of home.’
She returned to Albany where she has been Key Bank’s Market President for the past five years.
Her job as a senior executive with the bank sees her have responsibility for internal and external leader, spokesperson as well as leading the bank’s retail business.
‘ We have 53 branches across the eight counties in the Capital region,’ she explains.
Life and work have been impacted by the COVID-19 pan
demic there as well as here.
‘It’s a dreadful time for family, friends, colleagues,’ she says, adding that she especially feels for elderly people who are staying at home in an effort to protect themselves.
As an essential service, the bank remains open for business and operating during a pandemic is a major challenge and one which she fears will continue for some time.
‘At KeyBank, our first priority is to keep our employees and customers safe and we took all the necessary precautions to do so, doing what the Centre for Disease Control and what the scientists tell us.’
The company has introduced remote working for eleven thousand employees who have been working from home since March, while a further six thousand who work in the bank’s branches are going to work everyday to take care of their clients.
Paying tribute to the efforts of her colleagues, Ruth says that it is amazing how they have been able to continue offering a service to all their customers, although she misses the direct contact with customers.
‘ We’re using technology that we’ve had for years but I prefer to do business in person.’
‘ When this started in March, I thought I’d be working remotely for a couple of weeks - I never thought it would be for eight months and more.’
It’s not just her working life which has been affected by the pandemic but also her family life. ‘ We travel a lot and usually get home to Ireland once a year,’ she says. We were home in May of last year which was great but obviously we weren’t able to go this year.’
Her Dad and sister Orla are still living in Ireland, while Emma joined Ruth and Dawn in moving to the United States.
She is, she says, looking forward to travelling again and is cautiously optimistic that she will be able to do so next year.
‘It feels like a long time. Travel is one of those privileges which you take for granted and only miss it when you can’t do it.’
Ruth is very much involved in the community in Albany and has received numerous recognitions for her community service, from organizations such as Girls Inc., YWCA, American Red Cross, and Hope House.
‘ Work keeps me busy which I enjoy very much. I do voluntary work in the community to help give back.’
She also plays golf, something which she began with her Dad in Dundalk Golf Club.
‘I started playing now that I’m a little too old for basketball! I really enjoy it and my husband and son play it so it’s something we like doing as a family.’
The simple pleasure of spending time at home with family and friends is something she also cherishes. ‘ We are lucky that the climate here is good so we can enjoy being outdoors.’