Celebrating Sucess

Bita Ardalan, Executive Vice President of Union Bank and one of IAW Foundation's Advisory Board members was recently recognized as number seven among 25 women to watch in banking within the U.S. according to American Banker Magazine and was featured on the cover of the October issue of the magazine. In 2011, Union Bank created a National Specialized Lending Group and as president of the new division, Ardalan revived the commercial finance group, overhauling its management structure. She also quickly added three more specialties to the group-nonprofits, healthcare finance, and aerospace and defense- and is already reviewing additional prospects. In her new role, she is concentrating on building a national profile for the company.

Ms. Ardalan first joined Union Bank in 1986. For the next 10 years, she held increasingly more responsible positions with the San Fernando Valley Commercial Banking office and served as its Senior Vice President since 1998. She earned a Bachelor of Science in economics and finance from Williams College in Massachusetts. She has also successfully completed numerous executive education program in corporate finance, leadership, strategic planning, and finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

IAW Foundation would like to congratulate Bita for her tremendous accomplishment. We are inspired by her success and honored to have her as an Advisory Board member of the IAW Foundation.