Sarah Hamel

Sarah Hamel is First Vice President, Head of the Card Services Division at MB Financial Bank.  She is responsible for three business lines – Debit Card, Credit Card and Prepaid Card.  The Card Services Division was new as of January 2012.  The division was created to develop a Prepaid Card product suite, and grow the business nationally, as well as strategically align MB’s card payment products.  Sarah was asked to take on the role of Card Division Services Manager based on her knowledge of the cards and payments business, gained through her previous role managing the debit card products and ATM network. Since its launch, MB Card Services has implemented a General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) in-branch, became sponsor of a GPR card program, and in the process of rolling out Gift, Incentive/Rebate & Payroll cards.Prior to the transition to Card Division Services Manager, Sarah was the Retail Product Group Manager responsible for all retail deposit products, retail internet banking and bill payment (ibankmb.com), retail e-statement, debit cards and ATM network.  While in this role, Sarah headed up various projects such as, launch of the business debit card (2007), implementation and roll out of ibankmb.com (2008), launch of My Bank…My Rewards program (2009), selection and roll out of intelligent deposit ATMs (2010 – 2012), redesign of consumer checking products (2011), design and launch of MB Everyday Prepaid (2011 – 2012). In addition, Sarah worked directly with the marketing department and branches for product promotion and campaign development.  Sarah was also a key stakeholder in the six FDIC-assisted bank acquisitions that occurred between 2008 – 2010, responsible for the pricing and conversion of deposit products, conversion of ATM & debit cards, as well as the ATM network. In 2011, Sarah was selected by MB to be a keynote speaker in a MasterCard-sponsored event, BThere, alongside Guiliana (of the E network) and Bill Rancic (former Apprentice winner). Sarah joined MB as part of the Oak Brook Bank (OBB) merger in 2006, where she started in 2001 as part of the Management Training Program. While at OBB Sarah led many retail projects, namely ATM network management, developed checking products, research and developed the Health Savings Account program, and grew the debit card portfolio.   Prior to joining OBB, Sarah began her banking career at Fleet Bank (now Bank of America) within the retail division.