Amalgamated Bank President & CEO Selected to Join Prestigious Aspen Institute's Inaugural Financial Leaders Fellowship

NEW YORK – Amalgamated Bank, the nation’s leading progressive bank, today announced that the bank’s President and CEO Keith Mestrich has been selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship—22 leaders who will participate in a two-year Fellowship designed to inspire them to take an active role in shaping the global finance industry’s future through values-based leadership.
 
Chosen from a diverse set of financial sectors, Mr. Mestrich will join Fellows representing pensions, endowments, regulations, banking, asset management, and others.
 
“Joining the inaugural Aspen Institute’s Financial Leaders Fellowship class is not only a great honor, it’s also a tremendous opportunity to be a positive force in shaping the future of finance,” said Keith Mestrich, President and CEO of Amalgamated Bank. “I look forward to collaborating with such a great group of financial leaders to ensure that the financial sector is resilient, vibrant and representative and accessible for all.”
 
“We welcome this accomplished and action-oriented group of leaders in finance, who have great potential to chart the future course of our industry” said Jennifer Simpson, managing director of the Finance Leaders Fellowship. “The Fellows hail from around the world and across the industry; we at the Aspen Institute are excited to inspire them to lead on a broader scale and to launch ventures that will advance the positive impact of finance on society.”

The Finance Leaders Fellows will spend four weeks over the course of two years exploring their leadership, core values, desired legacies, and their vision for the global finance industry. Each Fellow commits to launching a leadership venture that will stretch and challenge them and have a positive impact on the finance sector and society. The Finance Leaders Fellows join more than 2,200 other entrepreneurial leaders from over 50 countries to become members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN).

From successfully supporting raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour in NY, DC and California to pushing to make companies more transparent and accountable and from ensuring greater access to banking and introducing and calling on the banking industry to adopt the 5 Principles of responsible banking, Amalgamated Bank has been an outspoken leader on many of the nation’s progressive policy issues.

About the Aspen Global Leadership Network
The Aspen Global Leadership Network is a growing, worldwide community of entrepreneurial leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sector—currently, more than 2,200 Fellows from over 50 countries—who share a commitment to enlightened leadership and to using their creativity, energy and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. All share the experience of participating in the Henry Crown Fellowship or one of the dozen Aspen Institute leadership initiatives it has inspired in the United States, Africa, Central America, India, the Middle East and China. For more information, visit http://agln.aspeninstitute.org.
 
About the Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
 
About Amalgamated Bank
For nearly a century, Amalgamated Bank has been a financial institution with a purpose: affordable and accessible banking for all. Offering customers nationwide the products and services of a major financial institution, Amalgamated is committed to the values on which it was founded. We proudly advocate for workers’ rights and promote the highest standards of environmental, social and corporate governance practices, which is why we are the first choice of progressive organizations and people ¬ from presidential campaigns and labor unions to individuals who want a bank that believes everyone should be able to participate fully in our economy. We serve our communities with the core principle that the real currency of banking isn’t dollars – it’s trust.