Chief Financial Officer
In her first senior leadership meeting as Bank of New York Mellon’s chief financial officer, Emily Portney was asked to name the biggest risk she’d ever taken. Only half joking, she remarked, “Taking this job!”
“There was a lot of truth to that, and I received many emails and phone calls afterwards from other executives who appreciated the honest answer,” she said.
This experience taught her a valuable lesson — many of us have imposter syndrome that we are struggling to overcome. “Every day, I remind myself: I belong in this role, I earned this seat, and I should embrace my platform as the company’s first female CFO,” Portney said.
Portney’s recent track record has allowed her to be more confident in her role as chief executor of BNY Mellon's global financial strategy. She has handily exceeded projections in client coverage and asset servicing, and introduced heightened transparency into previously opaque processes like executive compensation, annual planning and expense management. She is also a member of the executive committee.
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During the height of the pandemic, Portney had to navigate the stark new realities of managing a 2,000-person organization that had been suddenly converted to a virtual work arrangement. One challenge was to ensure democratization of access to top decision makers.
In keeping with the firm’s spirit of accessibility to leadership, Portney started hosting global “coffee hours” where finance employees across various levels of the organization could speak with her directly. By removing traditional barriers to bidirectional communication, she was able to get to know her colleagues on a personal level. And she found that knowing her colleagues better helped solidify trust and create deeper connections among staff.
Since 2007, Portney has been a fervent supporter of Cycle for Survival, an organization that raises money for rare cancer treatment and research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In 2021, she founded a global BNY Mellon team to participate virtually in the charity’s principal annual event, raising more than $35,000 in donations.
