Paving Your Path: DeSales Alumna Shares Insights at Annual Fainor Center Executive Forum

When leading a team, Terry Coleman ’82 still likes to reflect back on the Catholic, Salesian values she learned at DeSales.

Currently managing director at Deutsche Bank, Coleman recently returned to campus as the featured speaker at the annual Fainor Center for Financial Services Executive Forum. She shared valuable insights regarding career development, networking, and leadership with the DeSales community.

“I learned to value every person no matter how different they are,” she shared, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and leveraging each person’s unique strengths.

Coleman recounted her career journey, highlighting that her path was far from linear. She went from the public to private sector and jumped between organizations across state lines.

Coleman stressed that career advancement can involve disparate roles that build essential skills needed for future success. However, she also underscored the significance of resiliency in the face of failure.  

“Don’t let disappointments defeat you,” she said. “There is a difference between feeling defeated and being disappointed but bouncing back.”

Ultimately, she advised students to remain self-aware of how they fit within an organization and to develop skills necessary for career progression continuously. The forum concluded with a Q&A session followed by a cocktail reception, which provided students with an opportunity to network with Coleman and other attendees.

“Hearing about how someone in a position of great success went through the same kind of collegiate experience keeps me energized and inspired to keep putting in the work,” shared Zachary Marshall ’25, an accounting and management double major.

The Fainor Executive Forum is named in honor of Scott Fainor, a 1994 finance and marketing alumnus and former Trustee of DeSales, who launched Fainor Holdings in 2019 following a distinguished career as a bank executive for 39 years.

Established in 2022, the forum honors executives in the business community and provides a showcase for the Kathleen Waterbury and J.B. Reilly School of Business’s activities and future leaders.