Like many of you, I paid for my University of Delaware degree by working at MBNA America. Also like many of you, I stayed on after graduation, in my case in Risk Management.
I think you’ll get it when I say MBNA was where I – and my eventual leadership team here at PAG — learned to treat the Customer as we expected to be treated, to put the Customer first every day – and meaning it.
I’m sure each of you has a favorite “wall quote,” whether it’s Complacency is Devastating, Attention to Detail Drives Everything We Do, Think of Yourself as a Customer, Success is Getting the right Customers and Keeping Them, or something else.
Many of the leaders we remember from those days brought the MBNA attitude outlined by the precepts to their jobs at Bank of America, to other organizations, or when they started new ones.
These values and experiences have stayed with us. Just take a look at the still-active Facebook and LinkedIn Groups celebrating the company and posting any number of items they’ve come across while cleaning out garages or basements. I’m one of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who still instinctively want to capitalize the “C” in Customer.
It’s difficult to fathom that 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of Bank of America’s acquisition of MBNA. Hundreds of people responded to a Facebook post by Georgeann Steele earlier this year designed to capture their interest in reconnecting with the people who put their careers on a life-changing track. So we at PAG pulled together a few people to start Thinking Things Through on planning such an event. Likes and Comments aren’t always the best indicator of engagement, so we published a seven-question survey last month, asking respondents to provide their email addresses so we could communicate with them as plans take shape.
If you haven’t already completed the survey, please consider doing so here:
We are proud and excited to host the event. We hope others will also sign on as sponsors to help make this a fun, memorable, and affordable event for attendees.
Details are still coming together as we collect your input.
- It will take place sometime next Spring.
- We’re waiting to pick a location, but the options are dwindling considering nearly 700 people have already told us they’ll likely attend.
- People who worked in regional or international offices and can’t attend in person asked us to consider ways we might include them.
- And, not surprisingly, some of the people who saw the posts urged us to consider a Cornboil-type event.
We look forward to playing some small part in bringing together people to reminisce about what we built, remember the wonderful people we’ve lost, and think about (or thank) the people who changed our lives and gave us the encouragement, support, and opportunity we needed to be successful. None of this is surprising when you consider that we were a Company of People Who Liked People.
The last paragraph of the book celebrating The First Fifteen Years says it all: “The record of all we have accomplished together tells us of more than memories. It speaks of challenges met and friendships made among people with common objectives. This record chronicles an attitude.”
We’ve created a webpage that will start providing updates with dates, location, and answers to your questions in the future. Please bookmark it now.
We hope to see you next Spring.
Stephen Hoops
CEO, Predictive Analytics Group
