Sarah Dubbert. GMLC Class of 2012, is the Executive Vice President of Commercial Banking for the Central & Eastern Missouri Region of Commerce Bank, a $25,9 billion bank ranked #44th largest in the nation.  Sarah is currently the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for GMLF.

Tell us about your role at Commerce Bank: I am responsible for managing the commercial banking team’s business development goals and overseeing relationship management related to the bank’s commercial lending and business banking products. I have almost 15 years of business banking experience and graduated of University of Missouri – Columbia, with a Bachelor of Science in secondary education and mathematics. I am a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) through the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP).

I collaborate with 25 of the best business bankers (Relationship Managers, Portfolio Manager, and Commercial Loan Associates) in the region to not only solve current client needs, but also to proactively bring innovative new solutions to the table. We assist our clients with creating better efficiency and improving their effectiveness in the marketplace. This spans credit needs, payables processes, receivables posting, internal reporting, fraud prevention, merchant processing, international needs, and many other areas of a client’s business.

Tell us about your family: Joe (husband) is an agronomist regional team lead for Agrigold, and we have two boys Aidan (14) who is at Rock Bridge High School and Ethan (10) who attends Grant Elementary.

Who is a professional mentor in your life? I have many!  There’s a group of female executives who have met monthly for professional and personal networking and support over the last two years that I would say top the list.  Their collective experiences, insight, opinions – and willingness to share all three have been crucial in defining the guideposts I leverage in my professional career.

What does it mean to mentor others?  I really see mentorship of women as having two distinct facets.  The first is focusing on what you can do to lift other women up.  This can take the form professionally of offering other female leaders names when asked for qualified candidates for boards, committees, task forces, and other elevated positions.  It can be by spending time with young women helping them learn the processes, systems and access the networks so that they are equipped to ‘play the game’ in whatever field they so choose.  Sometimes it’s just having those uncomfortable conversations about reality and expectations so that they are armed with the knowledge, confidence, and tactics needed to make it in their field.  In my opinion, while these are huge pieces for mentoring women leaders, the more important piece comes in the second facet, which is speaking up and being the voice in the room – even if it means sharing an unpopular opinion. It’s so important for women to share their voice and be an active participant in the conversation.

If you have a hidden talent, what is it?  I’m a quasi-experienced international travel planner!  I coordinate European vacations for a group of 20-35 people annually!