Featuring Judith Erwin '82

Confidence matters as much as competence. Join Judith Erwin, founding CEO of Grasshopper Bank, the first digital commercial bank in the United States, for a discussion on how being bold, taking risks and rising to the occasion will give you an edge in the workforce. She’ll share important insights on the confidence gap between men and women and what we all need to do to bridge that gap.      

Judith graduated from OSU with a BS in Economics in 1982 at a time of deep recession.  Banking was in very bad shape.  Taking a job in a branch, she started at the very bottom and worked her way up.

Judith was part of the founding executive team for Square 1 Bank in 2005, a new venture bank.  Square 1 went public in 2014 and she rang the bell on NASDAQ with her colleagues in NYC. A year later, Square 1 Bank was sold to Pacific Western Bank.  

Approached in early 2016 to start a new venture bank based in NYC, Judith agreed with the one caveat: it needed to have a differentiated technology strategy.  After 35 years in banking, she knew exactly what was broken in commercial banking and knew it was time for disruption.  

The Bank opens its virtual doors in February 2019.   The strategy was to build a bank from “scratch” and provide a much better user experience for the digital entrepreneurs Grasshopper serves.  Judith and her fellow Grasshoppers are seeking a number of firsts: first US digital commercial bank, first new bank in NY in ten years, record-breaking bank fund raise, first de novo with a female CEO in 100 years, female CTO/Co-Found, female CFO (just to name a few).

The Endowed Susan J. McGregor Memorial Lecture on Women’s Leadership for the OSU College of
Business has been established through the estate of Susan J. McGregor in keeping with her interest in
supporting women’s issues. McGregor, College of Business ’85, passed away in 2014 after a valiant
battle with brain cancer. Her career included stints at the Internal Revenue Service and Coopers and
Lybrand before she joined Microsoft where she rose through the ranks of the tax department to become
one of the company’s first female general managers in 2007. She was an Alpha Phi, an avid Beaver
believer and a generous friend to the OSU Foundation.