Celebrating Black History Month | Mignon Winston
VP Underwriting, Great Rock Capital
Mignon Winston isn’t one who could identify with the lyrics of Elvin Bishop’s hit “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” when it came to knowing what she wanted to do in life. When Winston was growing up, her mother worked in a bank, and after hearing from her what a banker did, Winston knew at that very moment that banking would be her chosen path as well. After graduating from college, Winston went to work for a bank, putting in nine years before branching off into asset-based lending, which is still her career today.
If she were to meet you at a cocktail party, her elevator pitch would be that she is a lender in the secured lending industry who deals with higher-risk borrowers. She assists these companies in finding alternative ways to secure loans that most conventional banks wouldn’t authorize. You could say that she provides hope to small businesses and even larger companies that can’t procure traditional bank financing.
Winston gravitated to this line of work because she was intrigued by the intellectual challenge of digging deeper into how a business operates. Although this career has brought her much joy, breaking into the field definitely had its challenges. As Winston reflected on those challenges, she recalled her childhood.
“I have dealt with otherness all my life. I grew up in what people jokingly call the Irish-Catholic Riviera in the Boston suburbs, and it was very odd in those suburbs not to be Irish-Catholic, and even more so to be African American or biracial. I was treated like I was weird, and that was very difficult for me,” said Winston.
Fast forward to her early 20s, as she finished credit training and was searching for work, she was yet again faced with feeling like the odd one out. At every company, a majority of employees were Caucasian, male, and 40 years old and older. Winston said she became “the queen of otherness.” Despite that, she pushed through her issues of self-confidence and feeling ill at ease and went on to excel in all she did.
Winston stated, “I’ve always felt that people tend to prefer to deal with people like themselves. And I still harbor that notion a bit, but now I tend to think, ‘Tough luck. I’m here, and I am who my corporation sent to assist you. So, let’s work through this.’”
As for efforts to improve diversity in the field, Winston shared, “I think that diversity is at its infancy in the lending industry. Many lenders approach the hiring decisions most of the time as the best person for the job and don’t cast that wide of a net, so being inclusive is not something that people think of.”
Winston has come into her own and has learned to embrace and value herself. In doing so, she has earned a creditable reputation, which is one of the things she is most grateful for. Winston said, “When I was interviewing for my current position, I really felt like I could benefit from the reputation I had built in the industry. For instance, I asked the person who would become my manager what law firms she worked with, and she named several. I told her, ‘You should ask them about me because I have done prior deals with them.’ I knew they would speak well of me, and I felt really good knowing that I was in the position to say that. Over the years, I had built up a good amount of goodwill.”
Winston has been able to extend her network and goodwill further since becoming a member of TMA. She joined in 2017 after meeting an officer of TMA at a networking event who encouraged her to get involved. Winston believes that the wealth of networking and education opportunities she has been able to access since joining TMA have helped in her career.
Winston has some advice for those of color looking to enter the lending industry: “Ask questions, seek out a number of mentors (formal and informal), and keep in touch with people you work with. Most people believe that networking is just passing out business cards, but it is keeping in touch with people that you know.”