Jessica Benevides-Caron

SVP, Portfolio Manager Team Leader, Citizens

Jessica Benevides-Caron is senior vice president and portfolio manager team leader for Citizens.  Based in Boston, Jessica is responsible for the asset-based lending portfolio in the northeast, including the retail finance team.  In this role, she leads a team of portfolio professionals responsible for managing $4 billion of asset-based lending credit commitments.  The team serves clients in a wide range of industries, including retail, manufacturing and diversified wholesalers in the middle market and large corporate segments.

Jessica joined the ABL portfolio management team at Citizens in 2016 and took on the responsibilities of team leader in 2018. Prior to joining Citizens, Jessica served in various roles across underwriting and portfolio management functions with First Niagara, Wachovia and Fleet Bank.  Her leadership, including mentoring and training, is an integral part of the development of the credit analysts on her team.  Her involvement in the Citizens Commercial Banker Development Program also provides the group the ability to recruit and develop this talent. 

Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bryant University.  She currently lives in the Boston area with her husband and their two children.

What advice would you offer to women just starting out in the industry? 

It’s important to use your voice.  Ask the difficult questions, give your opinion, and stay authentic.  Sometimes women have a different perspective, and we may approach problem solving and conflict resolution in a different way.  It’s important to have different perspectives when you are trying to make tough decisions. Your opinion matters and it can be impactful. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew in the beginning of your career? 

Work with people you respect and enjoy spending time with.  Typically, you spend 10 hours a day with your team, and a positive work environment can be extremely important for your mental and physical health.  I truly believe people do not leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses.  Throughout the course of my career, I’ve had the good fortune to work on fabulous teams with amazing individuals.  As evidenced by this last year, banking can be stressful at times and your quality of life is better if you like and respect your teammates.  

How do you balance work/personal time? 

This is a very timely question, given what we just experienced during the pandemic!  During the last 12 months, I felt torn between working from home, managing my team, tackling home schooling and squeezing in personal time.  It can be difficult to give 100% to any task when you’re spread so thin.  Give yourself some grace and live in the moment.  

How can commercial finance organizations attract and retain more women? 

Flexibility is key to attract and retain women in commercial finance. As a wife and a mom of two children, it has always been difficult to juggle the demands of my career and my life at home.  Over the course of my career, my best experiences have been with managers who understood the importance of work/life balance, and they allowed me the flexibility I needed to maintain that balance. With their support, I was able to thrive.  Another critical component is career path.  The organization needs to have a supportive culture and show women there are opportunities for growth.  

What effect, if any, has working remotely had on your career and/or your industry? What have been the challenges and how have you worked to overcome them?  

The pandemic has been a blessing and a curse in so many ways. During the first few weeks of the pandemic, it was amazing to see how fast our team could transition from full in-person to almost full remote.  Technology was able to support the transition, and my team did not miss a step.  We stayed in constant communication and utilized video conferencing tools to maintain the connection.  In my opinion, the key to working remotely is open and frequent communication and trust.  It’s important to pick up the phone, make sure each team member understands the ultimate goal, and how to achieve it.  It’s also important for leaders to trust their team and know they will deliver a quality work product.

What do you think work will look like in the post-pandemic world? 

I expect a hybrid work environment will be the “new normal” in the post-pandemic world for many companies.  While person-to-person contact will always be important, I believe leaders across the industry will use the insight gained during the pandemic to reimagine how (and where) work is done.