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GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com | 17 In her own words, Sink shares the sacrifices she made to climb the executive ladder, the values that she still steadfastly holds onto, and how she maintains as one of the most vocal proponents for Florida's future. You were a trailblazer in banking at a time when most women were not visible in those roles. What are some of the issues you faced and how have you overcome those? When I first started working in banking during the 1970s, laws had just been passed so companies were grappling with all sorts of reporting and what does it mean to be sure that women are represented at many levels. I was recruited for a management-training role with less than five others. We had a lot of attention but there were stumbles along the way. One of the first issues was equal pay for equal work. It's always been about women proving themselves knowing they can do the job and then not being afraid to ask for what you're worth. Part of the challenge was trying to figure out how to present your cause. I eventually was asked to take a transfer to New York City and open an office where I learned the importance of putting together a good team of people. delaide "Alex" Sink, 67, has spent her life trailblazing a path through Florida's history. As one of the first female executives in banking, Sink built a distinguished career for 26 years that culminated as president of Bank of America's Florida operations. She was the first woman to serve as the state's Chief Financial Officer and set her sights on a bigger political prize in 2010. Sink came within 60,000 votes of becoming Florida's first female governor, losing to Rick Scott in one of the closest races in election history. After stepping aside from the political stage following her loss of a special Congressional seat election, Sink still remains political gold for the Democratic Party. She is actively supporting and raising money for Hillary Clinton on her Presidential bid, and the staunch Democrat is visible on the local level, championing for the next generation of candidates and advocating for more women to run for political office. She is also active on the board with the Florida Next Foundation, an organization that inspires entrepreneurial and small business growth. After the sudden loss of her husband of 26 years, Bill McBride, she mourned in public with the grace and dignity many of us could not imagine. Now, Sink is on a personal journey to define her next role in life, as the mother to two older children, Bert and Lexi, but also on how she would like to create her best life. Did you have other women mentors that you helped you in your career? ere were no women within my company to mentor me, per se, so I had a number of male mentors who helped and advocated for me and gave me good advice about work situations. I found my female mentors came from my involvement in politics. I was part of the Charlotte Women's Political Caucus with about 200 members, ranging in age from 25 to 45. Charlotte had elected a couple of women to city council by that time. A couple of women had been elected to the legislature. at's the place that I've found my women friends and got my feet wet in political activism. How did you transition from banking executive into politics? You've got to find an employer who is going to encourage and support that involvement. Some employers are better at it than others. Anything that's a distraction outside of the workplace is viewed as kind of taking away from what you could be doing to advance the company's goals. If you're working for a big named law firm and you want to be a partner, you better not be seen as somebody who spends a lot of time advancing a political career. irty years ago, I was able to marry my interest in public life and politics with my career. By this time I was in middle management in banking, for the most part where people are Republicans. It made me the acknowledged Democrat and I was never shy about the fact. I remember there was some issue that came up at the federal level and Lawton Chiles, at the time was a senator. It made me feel pretty good when some senior people in the company called and asked me if I thought I could talk to Senator Chiles about this issue we were interested in. What was the biggest lesson that you learned in the public arena? It's really important to know what your values are. For me, I wanted to be sure that we were very customer-focused. When I served as the president of the Florida Group, we received many awards in the company for attention By Katherine Ferrara Johnson A Adelaide Alexander "Alex" Sink Board of Directors, Florida Next Foundation and former CFO of Florida ABOVE: Alex and her family at her daugher's wedding. BELOW: Alex and Bill at a UF game. Continued on page 18

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