Zions duo on top 25 list

Two Zions Bank executives are among the nation's top women in banking, according to the latest rankings from U.S. Banker Magazine.

U.S. Banker released its second annual ranking of the "25 Most Powerful Women in Banking" in its October issue, out Thursday. For the first time, Utah bankers were recognized, and both were from Zions.

LeeAnne B. Linderman, Zions executive vice president, ranked 23rd on the list, which includes Marjorie Magner, chairman and chief executive of Citigroup, and Cece Sutton, executive vice president at Wachovia Corp. A few pages further, at No. 7 on the magazine's "25 Women to Watch" list, is another Zions executive vice president, Diana E. Kirk.

"Zions Bank has enjoyed steady growth and profitability in the past decade thanks in large part to the leadership of LeeAnne and Diana," Zions president and chief executive Scott Anderson said in a prepared statement. "Their business savvy and hard work is evident in their balance sheets, with strong numbers that are not printed in pink ink."

Holly Sraeel, editor in chief of the magazine, said Utah made its debut in the rankings this year. According to Sraeel, 5,039 women were considered (compared to 4,700 women considered last year). Though candidates don't need to apply to be considered, nomination forms were posted online in May.

Based on the magazine's qualifications, the list was culled to 1,500 candidates, from which the top 25 were chosen.

The qualifications, according to Sraeel, were based "in good part on year-over-year performance (growth in business from last year to this, or the ability to turn around a faltering, stagnant or failing business), though we consider other things (some intangibles) like job complexity, years in the business, ties to the community, management style and the like.

"The difference between last year's ranking and this year's ranking is that we have year-over-year performance data from which to draw comparisons," Sraeel said. "In the final analysis, we look hard at many great achievers (1,500 women) and search out the best performers across institutions of all sizes."

Linderman heads Zions' retail banking division, overseeing its 133 bank branches and nearly 1,300 employees in Utah and Idaho. According to the bank, Linderman is responsible for 43 percent of its $10 billion in assets. Retail loans have grown 167 percent since Linderman took over, the bank stated, and in one year — 2002 to 2003 — net income in her division grew 56 percent.