Women in Technology: Savana’s Emily Steele
In what is a recurring feature, Finopotamus spotlights innovative women who are positively impacting technology applications in the credit union industry, and beyond.
In the latest installment in our “Women in Technology” series, we visited with Savana’s President Emily Steele. The Malvern, Penn.-based company bills itself as serving more than 40 financial institutions and fintechs, from de novo digital banks to institutions with more than $80 billion in assets, as well as leading fintech programs.
By W.B. King
One never knows where a conversation might lead. That was the case for Emily Steele. One day in 1994 while working for Vanguard, she spoke with a new contact at Sanchez Computer Associates (since acquired by FIS). The conversation ended with a question: Will you test our software? Soon after, she began experimenting with the company’s Profile core banking platform, and before long, she became its quality assurance manager.
“I share that because people, especially women, often assume a technology career has to start with a computer science degree,” Steele told Finopotamus. “Mine started with a conversation and a willingness to say ‘yes.’”
After 11 years in that role, Steele spent a decade as the president and COO of Akcelerant Software (later acquired by Temenos). Before becoming Savana’s President in 2022, she served as president of Temenos, North America.
“What kept me in the field is that banking technology is ultimately about people: an employee trying to serve someone well, or a member trying to accomplish something important in their life,” she reflected. “Thirty years later, after more than 15 of them serving credit unions, I've come full circle, working alongside the founder, Michael Sanchez, of the company where I got my start in tech, at Savana.”
Absorbing Complexity
While the tech space has changed over the years, such as teams that worked in silos with specific and separate sets of protocols, today those walls have been broken down. Now there is a clear operational throughline.
“Leadership changed with it. There's an old distinction in our industry between running the bank and changing the bank. Technology leaders used to be judged almost entirely on the first. Today they're expected to lead the second,” she noted. “What hasn't changed as much as people might think is the industry's tendency to create complexity while solving it.”
While the industry has made “incredible advances” in digital banking and self-service, Steele said many employees still spend their day moving between disconnected systems. “At many institutions, front-line staff have quietly become the integration layer,” she added. “The institutions that succeed next will be the ones that take that burden off their people. Technology should absorb complexity, not pass it on to employees and members.”
Being Ready to Stretch
When Steele began her professional journey, she was often the only women at the conference table. Today, the difference is dramatic, she noted. “I sit on an executive team where women hold five of the nine leadership seats, something I couldn't have imagined early in my career,” she continued. “Across Savana, 35 of our 80 employees are women. Across fintech, women today lead at every level, from engineering to the C-suite, and credit unions have been ahead of much of financial services in creating opportunities for women leaders.”
This change isn’t a result of DEI practices that focused on simply hiring women, she suggested, but rather “being intentional about having the right people at the table and promoting based on drive, judgment, results, and the ability to lead others. When you promote that way, diverse leadership teams naturally follow.”
Since Steele didn’t have many female role models in tech when she was starting out, she is dedicated to being an example for others, a duty she takes seriously. Among her champions was Jay Mossman. Today he is the founder and CEO of AKUVO but at the time, Mossman was the founder and CEO of Akcelerant Software.
“Jay was more than a mentor; he was a sponsor, and he advocated for me throughout my career. Mentors give advice. Sponsors put their own credibility behind you,” she shared. “When Jay asked me to step into the COO role at Akcelerant, I didn't think I was ready. When he challenged me to take over the North America region at Temenos, and then succeed him as president, I wasn't sure I was ready for that either.”
Her Mossman takeaway: You don't move people when they're fully ready. You move them when they're ready to stretch, and just before they get comfortable, you stretch them again.
“That's how I develop people today. What I look for is drive and the ability to bring people with you. One of our executives started in customer care; another began in sales. In both cases, I saw more in them than their roles required, pushed them into bigger opportunities, and continued investing in them across companies,” she continued. “Watching people grow into senior leadership roles has become one of the most rewarding parts of my career.”
Digital Convenience
With a 90-person team (80 employees and 10 contractors), 54 of whom work in product and engineering, Steele said Savana’s mission is to unlock next-generation, customer-centric banking operations through its API-first Digital Delivery Platform.
“The innovations that excite me most are the ones that help members get things done, not simply find information. For years, our industry focused on digitizing transactions. The next chapter is understanding intent and helping people achieve outcomes,” she noted.
“Members don't wake up wanting to update an address, reorder a debit card, or transfer funds. They're trying to accomplish something in their lives,” Steele continued. “Technology should help them get there without forcing them to navigate the complexities of how a financial institution is organized.”
While AI is becoming a driving force behind many operations, both back office and member-facing, Steele said banking still requires identity, eligibility, authority, policy, and evidence. Financial institutions, she noted, can't simply hand decision-making to a model.
“Our principle at Savana is simple: the model proposes, and the code decides. A person confirms every change, and every action is recorded in an audit trail. Institutions that build those guardrails early will move faster later,” she said, adding that the line between self-service and assisted service is also disappearing.
“Today, a member might start a request on their phone, get stuck, and then call for help, only to start over from the beginning. Increasingly, the request and its context travel with the member, so whoever picks it up already knows where to begin,” said Steele. “For credit unions, that's how digital convenience and high-touch service stop being a trade-off. What connects both trends is that technology can finally absorb complexity on members’ behalf instead of passing it on to them.”
Delivering Unique Value
In Steele’s view, success in this industry is not judged by a company’s ability to implement software, but rather empowering staff, improving member experiences, and helping institutions achieve the goals that matter most to them.
“As we expand our focus on the credit union market, we're looking for partners who want to build on what already makes credit unions special,” she told Finopotamus. “We're not here to make them look like everyone else. We're here to help them deliver their unique value more effectively.”
