Jennifer Escobar & Robert Pinard Selected as Notable Diverse Leaders

Jennifer Escobar, vice president and East Coast field sales manager, and Robert Pinard, vice president and branch manager of City National’s Park Avenue South branch, were honored by Crain’s New York Business as members of its inaugural, 2022 list of “Notable Diverse Leaders in Banking & Finance.” The “Notable Diverse Leaders” list recognizes colleagues who have prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion in their roles, and have driven progress through remarkable accomplishments at their respective companies.

Jennifer: Supporting and Advocating for Diversity

Jennifer was recognized for her excellence in recruiting, coaching, training and supporting relationship and sales colleagues throughout the bank’s branch network in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. She is also the East Coast co-chair of City National’s “LinkedIn100,” a group of 100 diverse bank colleagues focused on helping the bank better reach, engage and serve multicultural clients and communities.

An inclusive leader who was raised in a Latinx family, Jennifer jumps at any opportunity to be an advocate and mentor to Latinx colleagues. In her view, a diverse and dynamic viewpoint allows Jennifer and other Latinx colleagues to empathize with clients and offer new perspectives and solutions. She has served as a mentor and spoken on panels at the bank to support other Latinx colleagues as well as educate non-Latinx peers about her perspectives and advice for career development.

Robert: Leading through Adversity

Robert joined City National in January 2020 to prepare for and open the bank’s Park Avenue South branch. When the pandemic shut down New York two months later, it delayed the branch opening plans and meant that Robert had to hire several team members remotely, and onboard, train and mentor a whole new team virtually. He had to find ways to instill the bank’s culture and values into the new team by videoconference and phone while he himself was also new to the bank.

The members of his team come from very diverse backgrounds, which makes them uniquely well suited to serve a dynamic community like New York. Robert leads the team in an inclusive and collaborative way, always welcoming their input, making consensus-based decisions and working with them to chart their course together. The team opened the new branch in July 2020. They had to operate at limited capacity in the beginning due to the pandemic, but the branch has been successful.

Read Jennifer’s and Robert’s profiles in Crain’s here.