In
Susan Silcox
Profile
Susan Silcox chose to study engineering because she liked math and science. She chose Industrial Engineering because of the diversity of career paths. “I didn’t want a manufacturing job and IE gave me other options,” she says.
When Susan graduated, she went to work for IBM Global Services. She supported clients of IBM who were looking to outsource some of their technology services. She was a project manager for those efforts and spent most of her time at client sites. As Susan describes: “I was a road warrior.”
After 3 years of traveling, Susan decided to return to school. She received an MBA from the University of Georgia. While doing the MBA, Susan had an internship with Siemens in Germany. She worked with a small team of other students and did research on international trade agreements and how those agreements would bring the greatest benefit to Siemens.
After receiving her MBA, Susan joined Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo). While Susan had a number of positions at Wells Fargo, all of these had a heavy analytics emphasis. “I was able to become very familiar with using SAS/SQL and the corporate data warehouse environment. The ability to code in these languages was critical to my career advancement,” she says.
Susan’s first management opportunity at Wells Fargo was to manage a team which monitored for suspicious financial transactions. These were transactions that were potentially associated with financial crimes such as drug sales, terrorism activities, and human trafficking. Susan’s role was to manage the analytics staff which developed transaction monitoring programs to identify suspicious activity.
Susan moved from Wells Fargo to US Bank. She is a VP – Senior Compliance Manager who works in the organization responsible for assuring that US Bank is in compliance with federal regulation and guidelines on financial crimes monitoring and reporting.
Susan describes her job as one that is affected by the headlines of the day. “Every time there is a terrorist event, we must research whether we can provide insight on whether those involved in the terrorism event had any transactions with our bank.” Aside from risk based transaction monitoring development and maintenance responsibilities, Susan’s team is often involved in assisting with data mining efforts to support research for leads from government agencies and law enforcement.
Susan’s career is a fascinating example of how an Industrial Engineering degree can contribute to maintaining security of our nation and our financial system.
Bio
Susan is an experienced Compliance Manager with a demonstrated 10 year history of working in the financial services industry, specifically in the Anti-Money Laundering/Bank Secrecy Act compliance area. She is skilled in Management, AML/BSA Risk Management, Transaction Monitoring Development and Performance Monitoring. She has a strong educational foundation with an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA focused in Marketing and Organizational Consulting. She has also obtained her Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification.
