Santander Bank expanded its Commercial Banking presence in the Southwest region by naming Joanna Ridgway as its market head. She will serve as corporate market director for the bank’s Commercial Banking business in the Southwest. Based in Dallas, she and her team will be responsible for serving clients in Texas and the surrounding Southwestern states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico and Louisiana.

“We are adding investments and resources to support our growing commercial business in Texas and the Southwest where Joanna’s expertise is proving to be invaluable,” Robert Rubino, Santander Bank’s co-president and head of Commercial Banking, said. “She is a seasoned, effective and proven leader who knows these markets well and is helping Santander Bank thrive in this region.”

Ridgway was previously a global relationship manager for Fifth Third Bank in Dallas where she built and managed relationships with CEOs and CFOs of high-revenue generating international companies based in Texas. Before that she served as vice president of Commercial Banking for JPMorgan Chase, where she managed new business development prospects and client relationships with companies earning annual revenues between $20 million and $500 million.

She was awarded the Marshall Memorial Fellowship in 2012, a transatlantic leadership program granted by the German Marshall Fund, and she subsequently served on the Fellowship Selection Committee. She is also a graduate of Leadership Dallas, a leadership development program, and joined the Dallas Regional Chamber on a June 2018 trade mission to London and Paris.

Ridgway will join more than 3,300 Santander employees based in Dallas from the bank’s Commercial Banking Dealer Floor Plan business and from its sister company, Santander Consumer USA Holdings, which provides auto finance and consumer lending services nationwide.