DMC was proud to garner national exposure for NewAlliance Bank's Peyton R. Patterson in the Sunday Business section of the New York Times. INSPIRED BY MOM By PEYTON R. PATTERSON Published: November 21, 2008 New York Times I GREW up as an only child in Washington, D.C., and my mother, who raised me on her own, was my absolute mentor. I admired her strength. She was extremely bright, very pretty, very well respected. When she thought she was really good at singing, she became an opera singer — this was in the 1940s, while she was in her 20’s. She was also a great writer, so she wrote for a lot of different newspapers. During the Truman administration, she was vice president of the Young Democrats of America. Then, in the 1960s, the State Department hired her to work for Aid for International Development. She had a love for people — my friends were probably as close to her as they were to me. She read voraciously and traveled all over the world. She always set an example for me that PEYTON R. PATTERSON Chief executive, NewAlliance Bank, New Haven AGE 52 HOMETOWN Washington, D.C. RECENTLY READ "Big Russ and Me” and “Wisdom of Our Fathers," by Tim Russert said, “No matter what, I can make it happen.” My mother wasn’t spared hardships. She was raised during the Depression, so she understood what it meant to struggle. She was my standard, as a little girl, of what it meant to be a working mother. This was a woman who was born in 1918. In her adult life she had an extraordinary career at a time when that was definitely unusual for a woman. I grew up in an atmosphere of being confident and pursuing goals that were important to me. When I was 16, my mother said the biggest thing that had helped her in her life was when her mother and father asked her to take a public speaking class. So she enrolled me in one, and I found myself getting up in front of people and talking on all kinds of topics. That gave me the underpinnings of liking and feeling comfortable with communications and influencing people. History does have a way of repeating itself. Now I am raising my 10-year-old daughter to be exposed to as many things that interest her as possible. Often I see myself in her. She was absolutely fascinated by the presidential election this year, so we’ve been talking a lot about government and the political process. Similarly, I often can feel my mother’s presence in me. My mother never knew that I got this job. About six months before I took the job, she was dying of cancer. And she said to me, “Peyton, I want you to promise me something. You really should become president of a bank someday.” I was a little insulted because here I was an executive vice president of a bank in Manhattan and I was pretty happy. I said, “Mom, what are you talking about?” She said, “Peyton, it’s because I’ve been telling everyone for two years you are a president.” It’s a funny story, but it was also her way of saying to me, “I have faith in you.” Within a year, I got a call out of the blue to be president and C.E.O. of a bank. I took the job. The guiding principles that I have always used to lead the bank are founded in a deep understanding of who we are responsible to: our customers, the communities we operate in, our employees and our investors. The financial crisis, at its roots, was prompted by banks that lost sight of those responsibilities. I mentor a lot of young women. I teach at universities and get involved in community activities. I talk about the importance of getting balance in one’s life — I call it a life plan. If you don’t stop to think about where you want to be in five years or whatever the horizon is, chances are it’s not going to fall into your lap. Having a child, getting married, all the life events that we have — you sort of have to figure out how they’re all going to get done. I think I have a well-rounded set of interests and priorities. The minute I walk out of the bank, I’m thinking about my family, my home, all the things I have to do. I love theater, I’m active in tennis, I appreciate a sense of beauty in homes. There’s that very important side of being a mother and a friend, someone with personal sensitivity to daily life. As told to Lisa Prevost.

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