Kenya Matthews promoted to assistant VP at PNC

KENYA MATTHEWS

Retail banks are expanding their digital footprints across the market and PNC is no different. It is currently launching a national digital strategy and at the heart of that effort—making sure the customer comes first—is Kenya Matthews, who was named assistant vice president, Product Manager II—Customer Experience, Retail Lending & Strategy in late September.
“The role that I am in now is also heavily focused on the customer experience,” she told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview. “I am the owner of the end-to-end customer experience across retail lending products, to include—but not limited to—credit card, auto loans, mortgage loans, etc.”
Matthews, a New Pittsburgh Courier 2017 Woman of Excellence, grew up in the hilltop neighborhoods of Beltzhoover and Knoxville and joined PNC as a digital product manager in 2016 after earning her bachelor’s degree in Information Technology Management from Point Park University.
She earned her master’s in Organizational Leadership and Change Management from Robert Morris University while overseeing the design and development for the digital credit card applications. Though still focusing on customer satisfaction, her new role is more expansive.
“I am in the process of standing up a new Agile crew in order to create new experiences for our customers,” she said.
“The starting process of creating new experiences is ensuring you understand the current state to identify the areas of opportunity to produce efficient and effective solutions. I am not doing this alone—I am one person on a great team and I enjoy the dedication along with the collaboration we have on ensuring we develop great products.”
But beyond developing next-generation products, Matthews continues to give her time to develop the next generation of skilled professionals, both as the incoming president of the African American Employee Business Resource group Pittsburgh Chapter, and as a board member of Gwen’s Girls.
“The culture at PNC fosters diversity and inclusion from the top down,” she said. “I am always volunteering and looking for ways to promote diversity and IT careers for women, young girls and minorities. We can’t be what we can’t see! My passion is to create exposure and areas of opportunity for women and diversity. I think the more exposure and understanding we have of the field itself, the more we will gravitate to it.”
Matthews said part of that outreach is noting how having both IT and business backgrounds allows her to act as a liaison between technical and non-technical teams.
“And it helps me in understanding holistically what it takes to bring an idea to fruition,” she said. It takes a lot of work to bring an idea to reality. I understand now how a seemingly small ask can equate to a complex programming development solution.”
And as much as she looks forward to challenges and opportunities for professional and personal growth PNC’s new digital strategy will afford her, she is determined to make sure others know they can create those opportunities, too.
“Gwen’s Girls is dear to me. I see myself in the girls and young women we serve. I’ve been there, experienced traumatic events, a young mother not sure of what my future holds,” she said. “It is my duty as a human being to help someone else get through some of the same challenges that I have been able to overcome.”
 
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter  https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier

About Post Author

Comments

From the Web

Skip to content