Michele is a Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Operations and Enterprise Initiatives with M&T Bank. Michele initially was not seeking a career in banking. Instead, she pursued a career as a programmer until landing a position at Society Bank. Michelle noticed an opportunity to enter banking when Apple introduced its iPad tablet computing device in 2010. The tablet was presented to the M&T Bank Board of Directors, resulting in a request by the Board to spend upwards of $40 million to establish a mobile banking platform. M&T’s hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., is now a renowned regional innovation cluster because of her expertise in the I.T. sector. One day, Michele hopes the M&T Tech Hub in downtown Buffalo will resemble Silicon Valley’s Tech Valley and be worth $139 billion in assets. The Bank expects its presence in the area to encourage different high-tech companies to locate there.
