Racquel Oden, head of U.S. wealth and private banking at HSBC, had a unique path to the top

A brief stint at Publishers Clearing House paved the path to finance for Racquel Oden.

She graduated in 1994 from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with a degree in political science, and was hired into the publishing company's management trainee program. Managing hundreds of employees in its mail room made Oden realize that she enjoyed being a leader.

She went back to school and got an MBA from Hampton University, a private, historically black institution in Virginia. Upon graduation, she was hired as an equity trading associate at Morgan Stanley. "What was great about Morgan Stanley at that time, was they had this equity trading program, so if you were going to be a trader on the desk, they made you go from the back office to the front office," she recalled. "So I went from the operations team to the technology team and then onto a trading desk."

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Ally's Diane Morais looks back on her 37-year career in banking

After 37 years in the banking industry, Diane Morais, the former president of consumer and commercial banking at Ally, retired in July.

One year earlier, Morais had a conversation with then-CEO Jeffrey Brown about stepping down. "I told him that I was feeling like my work here was largely done. I had crossed over my 16-year marker, and it's probably time. I never wanted to be that person who's hanging around and overstaying their welcome," she said.

Three months later Brown announced that he would be leaving Ally at the end of 2023, so Morais decided to stay on bit longer to help with the transition. "I always told Jeff that we can't both leave at the same time, so I committed to helping the new CEO get on board," she said.

Read more about Morais' impressive career