SANDRA VILLASENOR
Broadway Bank Senior Vice President Business Banking
By Carole Miller
Photography by David Teran
Ambition personified, Sandra Villasenor has an unbelievable amount of charm and knows how to get what she wants. She serves as Senior Vice President Business Banker for Broadway Bank, but there’s really no reason why she couldn’t serve as queen of the world if that’s what she decided to do. Go ahead, throw her some lemons and see what happens.
“I work to prove to myself I can,” she muses. “I never thought I’d be a banker back in 1985, but here I am. Now I don’t know what else I would do.”
To know Sandy is to love Sandy. She may come across as bulletproof, but deep down, she’s quite warmhearted, sentimental, and caring. She also sits on the board of The San Antonio Hispanic Chamber and serves as finance chair on the board of San Antonio Growth for the Eastside (SAGE).
“I have never seen anyone care more about customers than Sandy. She always goes above and beyond to ensure they succeed financially,” says longtime co-worker and friend Annie Turner.
She is a ball of fire with an enormous stockpile of moxie and most likely never encountered a roadblock she couldn’t steamroll past. From her humble beginnings on San Antonio’s west side to struggling as a teen mom to battling breast cancer, Sandra Villasenor, like the phoenix, will always rise from the ashes and emerge victoriously.
“I feed off people,” explains Villasenor. “The key is communication, asking the right questions, making clients comfortable. I like to please people. That’s a skill you can’t teach.”
As for succeeding in the “man’s world” of finance, this self-described “former tomboy” believes women today are powerful, well-educated, and perfectly capable. Her advice to young women is to “look inside yourself and find what makes you happy.”
