Christ Church Greenwich announces a Free Sunday Forum entitled, “Lessons Learned from Crisis Management: Clarity Under Pressure” with Karen Peetz, Former BNY Mellon President on Sunday, May 3 at 11:15 am in the Parish Hall. In-person only.
Join Karen Peetz, interviewed by Lynne Jordal Martin, Senior Warden, for a relevant, candid conversation on what it takes to lead when everything is on the line.
Most of us will never run a global bank. But all of us will face a crisis — in our organizations, our families, or our own lives. The question is never whether it will happen. It’s whether you’ll be ready.
Karen Peetz has been in the room when it mattered most. She was in Lower Manhattan at BNY on 9/11. She was Chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees during the scandal that shook the university to its foundations. She joined the Wells Fargo board in the immediate aftermath of its sales practice crisis. In each case, she had to lead, knowing she wouldn’t get everything right, knowing she might not be loved for the decisions she made, and knowing that the long-term health of the institution depended on doing it anyway.
This Sunday, Karen will share practical advice for navigating high-stakes moments — in business, at home, and in your personal life. She’ll explore why doing the right thing rarely makes you popular, how people can hold vastly different views of the same crisis, and how faith gives us the strength to stand by difficult decisions.
She’ll also speak to something rarely discussed: when we invest deeply in a leader, that leader becomes a mirror for our own values and identity — which is why, when they fall, so many of us can’t let go.
To admit the leader failed is, in some ways, to admit that we were wrong too. Whatever crisis you are facing — or hoping never to face — you will leave Sunday morning with something you can use.
One of the most accomplished executives in American finance, Peetz served as President of BNY Mellon from 2013 to 2017, overseeing global client management, human resources, regulatory oversight, and the firm’s transaction services businesses. She later served as Chief Administrative Officer of Citigroup, responsible for global transformation and regulatory engagement. She currently serves on the boards of Fidelity Investments, Johns Hopkins University, and Johns Hopkins Medicine, and is a former Chair of the Board of United Way of New York City and Penn State University’s Board of Trustees.