Women’s History Month 2024: Trailblazer Christine Garvey
My column’s Women’s History Month is proud to present Montecito trailblazer Christine Garvey. As a women’s leader in banking and real estate law, Garvey was one of seven women attending Suffolk University Law School in Boston in the late 1960s. That translates to approximately 1.5% of the law students at the time. She was one of the five women who graduated with a J.D. (Juris Doctorate) in 1972.
During her legal career of 46 years, Garvey was responsible for real estate holdings throughout the world. She was the global head of corporate real estate for Deutsche Bank and global head of worldwide real estate for Cisco Systems. At Bank of America, she led the commercial, corporate and property management units.
Garvey serves as Director of the Board for Montecito Bank & Trust, a member of the Suffolk University Law School Dean’s Cabinet, and is a Suffolk University Trustee.
She is also on the board of Toll Brothers Home Construction Company.
Q. What would you like to share about law school in 1968-72?
A. There were seven women in my class of over 300 law students in 1968 at Suffolk University Law School. I believe that only five women graduated in my class, though there are probably more from the evening Law School section.
I’ve been friends with a few of the women from law school over these 50 years since we graduated in 1972. One is a close friend, who was number one in my class, later became a District Attorney in Massachusetts, and is on a number of prominent boards. Another woman friend from law school is a Superior Court Judge in MA. We try to connect whenever I go back to Boston to attend the Board meetings for Suffolk University.
Share about your impactful career…
My father died three months before I graduated law school and I was very discombobulated at his early passing at age 61. I practiced law initially in Vermont where I settled with a law school beau, though later we divorced. I passed the Bar in Vermont and worked 10 years there practicing mainly real estate law with a small firm in Bennington. I then returned to California where I am a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of Immaculate Heart high school and college. I was having lunch upon my return with a good friend from high school who worked in the banking industry. I was interested in getting into banking, and she introduced me to the person in charge of Corporate Real Estate for First Interstate Bank. He fairly soon was asked to leave Interstate Bank, and they placed me as Head of the RE Department, beginning my banking career.
After two years I was recruited by Wells Fargo Bank [WFB] where I managed Corporate RE, including office, data centers, branches, and trading floors. I loved RE banking and the environment at WFB. One of the senior executive officers asked me to go to Security Pacific Bank to run their Corporate RE, but also asked me “to clean up” the foreclosed RE there. A month later, Bank of America [BofA] bought Security Pacific Bank. So, I was at BofA for 10 years running the Corp RE. That involved 62 countries worldwide, and a department of 300 people. In addition, I was given RE lending with about $40B in RE loans, and a RE Trust to manage as well… a full job!
You’ve done extensive work on private corporation boards.
Yes. In 1995, I was asked to go on a Real Estate Investment Trust Board at Catellus Development Corporation Los Angeles Headquarters. That was the beginning of my second career on Public Company Boards.
From there I was asked to go on to the boards of Prologis, Union Bank, Hilton Hotels, Toll Brothers, and Healthcare Properties, among the 10 boards of my career. For most of that time until the last five years, I was the only woman on the board. That changed with the focus on Diversity and Inclusion, and ESG [good Environment, Social and Governance].
I’m still a board member of Toll Brothers and Healthcare Properties (retiring next month); and the Board of Montecito Bank and Trust. Janet Garufis, our eminent CEO of Montecito Bank & Trust, was at BofA while I was there, as well as our President George Leis.
Can you speak to your work on nonprofit boards?
I’ve always believed that we should give back in life. I have been a committed member of many nonprofit boards, especially here in the Santa Barbara area. I am on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, the Sansum Clinic (now Sutter Health), California State University Channel Islands, and my alma mater, Suffolk University Boston. The University boards that attracted me have in common the devotion and mission to First Generation students attending college.
Suffolk University was a great foundation for me in Banking, RE Law and practice, and in my devotion to First Gen students and helping serve the underserved. At Suffolk University we have an amazing President and a Trustee Board that reflects that intense commitment!
Garvey, with her colleague Susan Cappiello J.D., who lives here on the Santa Barbara Riviera, are actively involved with Suffolk University Alumni. They host the annual Southern California alumni event with the University’s President at the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles.
This past week, Garvey asked me to join her for lunch with Amy Agigian PhD, the Executive Director and Founder of The Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights (CWHHR) at Suffolk University, as I graduated with an MPA from Suffolk University.
Agigian was on a scheduled meeting list with Suffolk University Trustees and alumni in California with Suffolk University Senior Director of Philanthropic Partnerships Jeff Foss. At lunch, Agigian presented a brief on her journey founding and directing the CWHHR since 2003. She brought the original 1971 publication of Our Bodies Our Selves by the Boston Women’s Health Collective. It reflected similar issues women have been dealing with throughout history – sexuality, birth control, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth; and the last chapter titled, “Women, Medicine and Capitalism,” says it all. Agigian gave us signed copies of the latest edition of the book, a best seller in 40 languages. Via the CWHHR, Suffolk University is the first academic institute in the United States to focus on women’s health and human rights in the social sciences, arts and humanities, and public policy. In 2019, the Center entered into a partnership with the legendary women’s health organization, Our Bodies Our Selves, to create Our Bodies Ourselves Today, links in the 411.
411: www.suffolk.edu/cas/centers-institutes/center-for-womens-health-human-rights
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