Vicki Williams
Senior vice president, commercial real estate, Alliance Bank of Arizona
Years in the industry: 25+
Since 2004, Vicki Williams has been her company’s go-to person for commercial real estate at the largest bank headquartered in Arizona. Williams’ banking career began in New York for the Chase Manhattan Bank. She then joined a community bank in Phoenix, which ultimately, through mergers and acquisitions, became Wells Fargo. For the last two decades, she has specialized in commercial lending. Alliance Bank of Arizona has financed Building 3 at SkySong and the acquisition of MetroCenter by the Carlyle Development Group. Past president, Williams sits on the board of AZCREW, is a member of ULI and the Arizona Commercial Mortgage Bankers Association.
What is the hardest professional or personal challenge you’ve faced and how did you overcome it?
Being a manager and a single mother. I overcame it with the support of my team and my employer at the time, Norwest Bank.
What do you consider your greatest professional accomplishment?
Helping to build and grow Alliance Bank’s Phoenix commercial real estate lending team to become a dominant lender in the market and an important part of the bank’s success.
What is your most memorable deal or project?
Doing work on a portfolio of loans to companies in Mexico after the less-developed-country (LDC) debt crisis and peso devaluation in the 1980s.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Working for a bank whose management understands real estate and is growth oriented and values my input.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up and how did that aspiration affect your career?
I had no idea what I wanted to be – or maybe I have just forgotten.
What is one little-known fact about you?
I enjoy trout fishing in the White Mountains, specifically stream fishing.
